Digital Commons Network^™

Children’S Rights At The United States-Mexico Border: Is The United States Of America Breaking International Laws?, Avery Anderson

Immigration and Human Rights Law Review

The treatment of migrant children at the United States-Mexico border has become a contentious issue worldwide. International human rights frameworks set certain standards for the treatment of migrant children, and there are growing allegations that the United States has violated international legal obligations due to its inadequate detention conditions. This article argues that while the United States is not explicitly violating international treaties due to specific reservations, its border policies are in direct contradiction with global norms for the humane treatment of children. Through a review of the legal obligations under customary international law and international treaties, this article highlights …

Kabwe’S Crisis: Toxic Lead Waste Poisoning Zambia’S Children, Jasmyn Hardin

Immigration and Human Rights Law Review

Kabwe, Zambia is among the most polluted cities, the result of nearly a century of lead mining and smelting. Despite the mine’s closure in 1994, an estimated 6.4 million tons of lead-contaminated waste continues to expose thousands of children to life-altering—and often irreversible—health consequences. This Article examines the Zambian government’s failure to remediate the environmental harm and protect children’s rights, analyzing both domestic legal obligations and international human rights treaties. It argues that the State’s pursuit of economic gain through continued lead processing has come at the expense of safeguarding the right to health and a healthy environment. Through an …

When Love Is Not Enough: The Muñoz Decision And The Erosion Of Family Unity In U.S. Immigration Law, Katerina Fernandez

Immigration and Human Rights Law Review

The Supreme Court’s decision in Department of State v. Muñoz marks a significant shift in U.S. immigration law, reinforcing the doctrine of consular non-reviewability and weakening long-standing protections for family unity. Historically, marriage and family have been recognized as fundamental rights; yet, Muñoz limits judicial oversight of visa denials, allowing for indefinite separations between U.S. citizens and their non-citizen spouses. This piece examines the ruling’s legal and human rights implications, its parallels to family separation policies, and its potential to justify future erosion of parental rights in immigration enforcement. It also examines possible legal avenues to challenge arbitrary family separations, …

Protecting Children's Rights In The National Climate Policies In Greece, Elpis Rerra

COP30

This paper aims to address the question, “How can we ensure that children’s rights are protected in national climate policies?” Ιn the broader field of climate justice, ecocide, and security, the theme of this study is children’s rights in the context of climate change and how the government can truly include them in the climate policies. This paper begins by highlighting the importance of addressing the issue of protecting children's rights from the impact of climate change. Moreover, it underlines the critical and urgent nature of children’s vulnerability to climate change. The paper also examines Greek climate policies and whether …

Ecocide, Justice And Accountability: Legal Pathways Through Cop30, Marina Soares Da Fonsêca

COP30

This paper examines how international legal frameworks can evolve to address environmental destruction caused by companies, specifically through the recognition of ecocide as an international crime. Thus, using the case of Braskem in Brazil as an example, the document exposes the systemic weaknesses in holding companies accountable for ecocidal acts that displace communities and destroy ecosystems. Three strategic recommendations are proposed: the codification of ecocide in the Rome Statute, the creation of a Global Climate Justice Observatory, and the reform of climate finance to include justice-centered mechanisms. These suggestions are discussed in the context of recent developments at COP29, especially …

Cross-Border Climate Adaptation – Transboundary Agreement For Climate Justice & Security, Andre Ferreira

COP30

This policy paper shall highlight the need for COP30 negotiators to adopt a Transboundary Adaptation Compact (TAA), a rights-based framework meant to coordinate climate adaptation across shared resources, mobilize finance, and manage the growing challenges of ecocide risks/cross-border migration. While shared bodies of water provide crucial resources for billions of people globally, their international governance is often fragmented. The climate crisis is compounding already existing tensions over water allocations that emerge from lack of cooperation between nation-states, threatening ecocide in river deltas, wetlands, and mangroves. Therefore, this paper aims to draw from existing case studies of successful regional cooperation, such …

Justice In Transition : Emphasizing Indigenous Leadership, Rights And Fair Access To Finance, Mariam Medhat Adel Ghazy

COP30

As the international climate crisis amplifies, solving it through only decreasing emissions is no longer efficient. Climate justice acknowledges that environmental change unequally impacts low income groups - despite these communities being the least contributors to the issue (What Is Climate Justice? - UC Center for Climate Justice, 2022). This paper aims to explore the challenges that must be confronted to make climate justice applicable : including indigenous people into climate finance and governance ; and holding transnational corporations responsible for climate – interconnected human right violations and ecocide. Drawing on case studies from Canada and Indonesia, the paper will …

Empowering Courts For Climate Justice: A Policy Proposal To Enhance Judicial Capacity Through The Paris Agreement Framework, Nourine Gad

COP30

This policy paper asserts that the strengthening of judicial capacity to deal with climate harm, especially ecocide, is urgently needed and that the Paris Agreement can play a huge role in this. Given that climate change has become a more political battle between justice and rights, courts have been playing a major role in holding governments and corporations accountable. Nevertheless, many national judiciaries do not have the instruments, jurisdiction, or the training to successfully adjudicate on complex climate cases. It is then argued that as a case study, Brazil has moved forward on the issue of climate rights through the …

Deep-Sea Mining In The Pacific: Climate Justice, Ecocide, And Security In Nauru And Kiribati, Zeyad El-Sayed

COP30

This policy paper explores how the growing international controversy over deep-sea mining (DSM) can be addressed under the considerations of climate justice, through analyzing two case studies, Nauru and Kiribati, of Pacific islands. Both states are highly vulnerable to climate change and economic instability, yet have adopted different strategies. Nauru has improved and enhanced its DSM plans in the Clarion–Clipperton Zone to ensure its sovereign development rights and economic needs. On the other hand, Kiribati has taken more mechanisms that are cautious measures to temporary pause the DSM negotiations in response to public pressure and environmental concerns. These cases show …

Transnational Corporations' Accountability Within The Context Of Climate Governance, Farida El Sheikh

COP30

As we approach COP30, it becomes more urgent to confront corporate impunity in climate governance more. The contribution of Transnational Corporations (TNCs) in global greenhouse gases emissions is increasing everyday, yet both local institutional structures and legislations -including Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) systems tend to shield them from accountability for the violations of climate-related human rights and ecocide. The conference plays a great role in such crucial moments by offering negotiators the opportunity to address climate-related crimes committed by TNCs, to align global economic governance with human rights, climate justice, and environment protection by establishing enforceable legal frameworks through multilateral …

Toward A More-Than-Human Climate Diplomacy: Reclaiming Justice Beyond The Western Gaze, Leandro Gabriel Caporale

COP30

This policy paper interrogates the structural injustices embedded in the COP negotiation system, arguing that global climate governance remains constrained by colonial legacies, epistemic hierarchies, and an anthropocentric diplomatic model. Despite its stated goals of inclusivity, the UNFCCC process continues to marginalise Indigenous, Global South, and alternative voices, reinforcing power asymmetries that shape both participation and outcomes. Based in case studies from Ecuador and Bolivia—where rights of nature and Indigenous governance have been integrated into legal frameworks—this paper examines how alternative systems of environmental stewardship and political subjectivity can inform a more just diplomatic architecture. It proposes pragmatic, system-oriented reforms …

Indigenous People Integration Into National Climate Decision Making Process, Omnia Ahmed Ayoub Ahmed

COP30

Our policy paper here is going to explore the urgent need to recognise and enhance the participation and integration of indigenous communities in global climate cases and discussions in decision making processes , despite their contribution now….we are focusing on their case now because they are the most Affected by its impacts , due to their strong connection to natural eco systems , their traditional knowledge and their practices are essential for the biodiversity conservation and sustainable resource management but , unfortunately there was a systemic exclusion due to some factors and limiting and representation in in climate conferences such …

Ecocide In The War On Gaza: An Environmental Crime That Affects The Whole World, Yazan A. Albatta

COP30

Environmental destruction in conflict zones is an escalating global crisis that directly undermines climate justice and ecological stability. This policy paper examines the concept of ecocide through the lens of the war on Gaza, where the deliberate or reckless targeting of natural resources has caused severe and lasting damage to water, soil, air, and biodiversity. The Gaza case reveals how warfare can accelerate climate change, destroy carbon-absorbing ecosystems, and leave communities with uninhabitable land and poisoned water supplies. Using Gaza as the primary case study, and drawing comparisons to environmental impacts observed during the Iraq war, the paper analyzes the …

The Formalisation Of The Judiciary In The International Climate Governance Vis-À-Vis A Solution For The Accountability Gap In Political Institutions, Shristi Gautam

COP30

The international governance of climate change has historically been led by political institutions operating under multilateral frameworks, such as the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement. Under these frameworks, the mitigation ambition and implementation of NDCs remain subject to state discretion, with no binding consequences for non-compliance, creating an enduring enforcement deficit. The paper examines the increasing judicialization of climate governance as a means of addressing this deficit, positioning the judiciary as an active enforcer rather than a passive adjudicator. Drawing on Urgenda v. The Netherlands, Leghari v. Pakistan, Milieudefensie v. Royal Dutch Shell, and the 2025 ICJ Advisory Opinion, the …

The Invisible Chains: Framing Abuse Of Dominant Position In Labor Markets, Giulia Mangiafico

Yearbook of Antitrust and Regulatory Studies

This paper examines how the concept of abuse of dominant position can be applied to the labour markets, where demand-side concentration and supply-side fragmentation generate monopsonistic dynamics that suppress wages, limit mobility, and reduce job security. It argues that traditional antitrust tools can be adapted to labour-specific contexts by redefining market boundaries through commuting zones, occupational substitutability, and recognition of artificial fragmentation. The study also addresses how exploitative practices such as non-compete agreements illustrate the concrete impact of employer power, and it highlights the need for a more coherent regulatory approach. Ultimately, it suggests that competition law, when enforced alongside …

Collective Dominance Under Scrutiny: Closing The Enforcement Gap Or Complicating Eu Competition Policy?, Miroslava Marinova

Yearbook of Antitrust and Regulatory Studies

This paper examines the European Commission’s Draft Guidelines on Article 102 TFEU, focusing on their treatment of collective dominance in oligopolistic markets. While the Guidelines adopt a structured framework derived from merger control, they fail to address a key challenge specific to Article 102: the need for clear evidentiary standards in retrospective enforcement. The paper argues that parallel conduct by independent firms can, in certain cases, serve as evidence of collective dominance where such behaviour is not rational absent joint market power. However, the Draft Guidelines offer little guidance on how to integrate such conduct into the dominance analysis. This …

You Are What You Eat: Using Trademark Law To Address Consumer Confusion In Food Labeling, Brooke Raniere

Journal of Intellectual Property Law

America is experiencing a health crisis. Our grocery store promulgates illusions of endless food choices; however, this abundance is sustained by only a handful of dominating food conglomerates. With the increased centralization of power in the food supply system, foods have generally become ultra-processed and unhealthier. Companies often use strategic marketing through packaging design, labeling, and food names to capture additional consumers through health claims that often do not reflect these foods' contents. As American citizens' average health continues to decline, large food conglomerates have increasingly pushed the boundaries of what they can claim, creating vast confusion and mislabeling in …

The First Sale Doctrine For The Digital Age, Ethan Thomas

Journal of Intellectual Property Law

For well over a century consumers have long enjoyed the ability to resell, gift, lend, or otherwise transfer their legally purchased copyrighted media. First established in common law and later codified into the Copyright Act of 1976 the first sale doctrine granted the right of transfer to consumers. In 2013, a district court held that the first sale doctrine does not let consumers transfer digital media through file sharing. Instead, a consumer must sell the object the media was downloaded onto. This decision effectively gutted the first sale doctrine’s application to digital media. Further reducing the reach of the first …

Rectifying The Disconnect Between The Policy Of The Doctrine Of Equivalents And Practice, Ian Moore

Journal of Intellectual Property Law

The doctrine of equivalents began as a measure to protect inventors from unscrupulous copiers who would make substitutions to avoid liability under literal infringement claims. Prosecution history estoppel was established as a guardrail to the doctrine, as a method of bringing some certainty to the scope of patent claims. However, in the Supreme Court’s zeal to contain the doctrine, they over-curbed its efficacy.

In cases that hinged on the doctrine of equivalents, patentees were only successful 21% of the time in district court, and 22% of the time in the federal circuit. A much lower success rate compared to the …

You Can’T Handle The Obvious: Lkq And Testing For Nonobviousness In Design Patents, Frank Easterlin

Journal of Intellectual Property Law

This Note traces the change from the rigid Rosen-Durling test for obviousness in design patents, to the Graham analysis in light of KSR v. Teleflex. The history of obviousness inquiries supported a more flexible approach and thus made Rosen-Durling unsupportable as anomalous. However, in abandoning a functional, if stiff, test for obviousness, the Federal Circuit both clarifies and clutters the law around obviousness. This Note follows that change, makes sense of what it can, and humorously criticizes the ambiguities and circularity of the court’s opinion. Ultimately, the new test opens up design patents to a wider array of attacks. This …

Paws Off My Image: Why Rights Of Publicity Should Be Expanded, Lauren Didelot

Journal of Intellectual Property Law

In our increasingly digital world, exposure to fame and fortune has become more accessible than ever, and many pet owners have taken advantage of this. The rise of “petfluencers” has called into question the extent of available rights of these celebrity animals’ owners to protect and maintain their pet’s commercial value, thus preventing instances of unfair enrichment from other’s exploitation of their beloved animals. This Note argues for the acceptance of an animal’s right of publicity. We begin with an exploration of the right of publicity itself and its current applications. Next, we will discuss the intellectual property rights currently …

You Wanted The Best? You Got The Best! If You Can Pay For It... Antitrust Considerations And Artist-Based Solutions For Lower Concert Ticket Prices, Jake Farbman

Journal of Intellectual Property Law

The live music industry has become increasingly inaccessible to fans as ticket prices continue to rise under the dominance of Live Nation Entertainment and Ticketmaster. Since their controversial 2010 merger, the two companies have consolidated control over both the primary and secondary ticketing markets, fostering anticompetitive practices that allegedly include exclusive venue agreements, coercive bundling of promotion and ticketing services, and dynamic pricing schemes. These practices have drawn widespread scrutiny from lawmakers, regulators, artists, and consumers alike, culminating in the Department of Justice’s 2024 antitrust lawsuit seeking to break up the conglomerate.

This Article traces the historical development of the …

Table Of Contents, Emily Tracy

Journal of Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.

Panel 5 - Transnational Networks And Global Tax Governance, Amin Mawani, Shu-Yi Oei, Miranda Stewart

A. Cockfield Memorial Symposium

Chair: Amin Mawani (York University)

Shu-Yi Oei (Duke University), Transnational Actors and Networks in Global Tax Reform

Miranda Stewart (New York University/University of Melbourne), Are We Still Regulating Up? Transnational Networks and Global Cooperation in Tax Administration

Commentators: Lilian Faulhaber (Georgetown University); Angelo Nikolakakis (EY)

Panel 6 - Tax Sovereignty Asserted And Practiced, David Duff, Jonathan Farrar, Lyne Latulippe, Nicolas Proulx, Jinyan Li

A. Cockfield Memorial Symposium

Chair: David Duff (University of British Columbia)

Jonathan Farrar (Wilfrid Laurier University), Mapping Public Attitudes Toward Taxation: A Cross-National Study of Fiscal Citizenship

Lyne Latulippe (Université de Sherbrooke) and Nicolas Proulx, (Members of Parliament in Development and Adoption of International Tax Policy), Implementation of International Tax Policy by the Canadian Parliament – The case of the MLI

Jinyan Li (Osgoode Hall Law School) and Angelo Nikolakakis (EY), Shrinking Tax Sovereignty in Canada? Evidence from the Income Tax Act

Commentators: Sophie Chatel (MP); Shawn Porter (Deloitte)

Program - A. Cockfield Memorial Symposium, York University

A. Cockfield Memorial Symposium

No abstract provided.

Panel 3 - Sovereignty In The Age Of Digitalization, Ken Klassen, Yariv Brauner, Ivan Ozai, David Duff

A. Cockfield Memorial Symposium

Chair: Ken Klassen (University of Waterloo)

Yariv Brauner (University of Florida), When Things Break Down: Taxing the Digital Economy in an Even Less Cooperative World

Ivan Ozai (Queen’s University), Taxing Decentralized Governance

David Duff (University of British Columbia), Globalization, Digitalization, and Individual Taxation

Commentators: Lori McMillan (Washburn University); Shay Menuchin (KPMG)

Controlling Private Economic Power: Lessons Learned From The Us Experience In The First Decades Of The 20th Century, Thierry Kirat, Frédéric Marty

Yearbook of Antitrust and Regulatory Studies

Concerns related to Big Techs have led to a proliferation of legislative initiatives to complete competition rules with regulatory devices that would lead gatekeepers to be subject to obligations to preserve an equality of opportunities on the market. Within this context, this contribution revisits American decision-making practice from the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century to show how regulatory-type interventions and the enforcement of competition rules have been activated to control the strategies of firms acting as gatekeepers. What we can learn from this experience is that a big firm having private regulatory power …

Panel 4 - Ai, Tax Avoidance And Disputes Resolution, Ivan Ozai, Jean-Pierre Vidal, Natalie Goulard, Geoffrey Loomer

A. Cockfield Memorial Symposium

Chair: Ivan Ozai (Queen’s University)

Jean-Pierre Vidal (HEC Motréal) and Natalie Goulard (Spiegel Ryan), Economic Substance in Section 245: Can AI Help Humans?

Geoffrey Loomer (University of Victoria), Tax Treaty Shopping in the Digital Era: Is Canada Responding Effectively?

Commentators: Jeffrey Trossman (Blakes); Catherine Brown (University of Calgary)

Panel 2 - Tax Sovereignty: Legitimate Authority And Boundaries, Geoffrey Loomer, Tsilly Dagan, Jennifer Farrell

A. Cockfield Memorial Symposium

Chair: Geoffrey Loomer (University of Victoria)

Tsilly Dagan (University of Oxford), Rethinking Tax Sovereignty: Between Power and Legitimate Authority

Jennifer Farrell (Western University), Tax implications of the new EU Foreign Subsidies Regulation Rules

Commentators: Stephen Shay (Boston College); Cees Peters (Tilburg University)