Digital Commons Network^™

Most-Favored-Nation's False Promises, George A. Bermann

Faculty Scholarship

Most-favoured-nation (MFN) protection seems decidedly straightforward both in meaning and operation, certainly as compared to other investment protections, such as fair and equitable treatment, which are plagued with indeterminacy. But the clarity of meaning and ease of application of MFN clauses are largely illusory. An examination of arbitral case law reveals seriously underestimated uncertainties surrounding the doctrine’s scope and workings. But the problems with MFN run far deeper. MFN may have the virtue of enhancing the level of protection of foreign investments. But States do not only extend benefits; they also withhold them. MFN disrespects the balance that States sought …

Joinder, Not Jurisdiction: Toward A New Theory Of Standing, Adam N. Steinman

Faculty Scholarship

This Article builds on an important development in the Supreme Court’s standing jurisprudence to propose a novel theory that would allow more meaningful access to federal courts while vindicating legitimate separation-of-powers concerns. In its recent decision in TransUnion LLC v. Ramirez, the Supreme Court endorsed a theory of standing based on Article II, writing that litigation between private parties—even when explicitly authorized by Congress—can run afoul of the executive branch’s interest in “how to prioritize and how aggressively to pursue legal actions against defendants who violate the law.” This Article II move has been justifiably criticized. But it is …

Empirical Methods In Contract Law, Monika Leszczynska

Faculty Scholarship

Researchers employ various empirical methods to provide insights into contractual legal issues. For instance, systematic content analysis has been used to examine the terms of contracts or court judgments in contractual disputes. This approach, though different from doctrinal methods, enhances our understanding of legal content. Surveys and experimental methods, on the other hand, provide evidence on people's perceptions of contract terms or contractual behavior such as consent, misrepresentation, or breach. The findings from these studies inform contract law theories, which are based on assumptions about behavior in contractual relationships. Empirical studies also strengthen arguments in normative research by providing evidence …

Sustaining Inclusion During Challenging Times: Reflections From The 2025 Aall Annual Meeting, Ariel Newman, Laura Dixon-Caldwell

Faculty Works

Reflections of two law librarians after attending the 2025 Annual Meeting of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL).

The Duty Of Police To Intervene: An Argument For Limits, John E. B. Myers

Hofstra Law Review

Police have a duty to intervene to stop fellow officers from using excessive force. Most commentators favor expanding this duty. This Article pushes back and argues the duty to intervene should be cabined.

"Ai" (Artificial Intelligence) Evidence: Rather Than Struggling To Decide Whether To Classify A Methodology As "Ai" And Relying On A Generalization About Ai Evidence, The Court Should Inquire Whether The Expert's Methodology Possesses A Specific Characteristic That Is Problematic In An Evidentiary Sense, Edward J. Imwinkelried

Hofstra Law Review

No abstract provided.

Article Xx And The Competition Problem: How The Justice Department Could Revive The Labor Movement By Suing The Afl-Cio, Alexander Macdonald

Hofstra Law Review

No abstract provided.

Balancing Acts: Student Rights, Parental Authority, And State Interests In Modern Sex Education, Linda S. Anderson

Marquette Benefits and Social Welfare Law Review

The article explores the complex interplay between parental rights, state authority, and student interests in the context of sex education in American public schools. It highlights the ongoing tension between abstinence-only and comprehensive sex education approaches, emphasizing the need for a student-centric framework that balances the rights and responsibilities of all stakeholders. The current legal landscape is examined through historical development, seminal court decisions, and recent legislative trends. Empirical evidence is presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of comprehensive sex education in promoting public health and supporting adolescents' development. The article advocates for a framework that incorporates student autonomy, age-appropriate content, …

Legislating Loss: Bereavement And State Level Statutes Across The 50 United States, Julio Montanez

Marquette Benefits and Social Welfare Law Review

Bereavement is an effectively inescapable experience. As such, many interventions (e.g., counseling) exist to support adaptation to life without a loved one. There are also legal interventions—such as laws—that carve out space, time, and resources for dealing with bereavement. Using an approach that blends three methodological techniques (i.e., evidence synthesis, policy surveillance, and grounded theory method), the current study explores the characteristics of bereavement statutes across the United States. Several thematic categories were constructed through exhaustive engagement with the qualitative statutory data: Health (e.g., Hospice), Responding (i.e., First Responding and Final Responding), Work Leave, Education, Observance/Commemoration, Government, and Miscellaneous. The …

Front Matter

Hofstra Law Review

No abstract provided.

Racing To The Courthouse: The Demise Of Race-Conscious, Private Sector Dei In The Wake Of Fearless Fund And Awakening Of Trump-Era Executive Action, Ava Rose Anacreonte

Hofstra Law Review

This article examines the current challenges and legal controversies surrounding race-conscious Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives in the private sector, focusing on the 2024 Eleventh Circuit ruling in* American Alliance for Equal Rights v. Fearless Fund Management, LLC*(“Fearless Fund”) and the impact of Trump-era executive orders targeting DEI programs. It distinguishes DEI from affirmative action, outlines the evolving legal landscape involving Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and Section 1981 of the Civil Rights Act of 1870, and analyzes how recent judicial decisions and executive actions have emboldened litigation against DEI efforts, often framed as “reverse discrimination.” The …

Minor League Baseball Players' Ascendance From "Seasonal Apprentices" To Full-Time Baseball Players, Garrett Q. Mcguinness

Hofstra Law Review

This article focuses on the historic ratification and ongoing challenges of the first Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) for Minor League Baseball (MiLB) players, signed in 2023, over fifty years after Major League Baseball (MLB) players first secured a CBA. It outlines the long-standing disparities between MiLB and MLB players, including delayed unionization, inadequate salaries, poor housing, limited health benefits, and restricted player mobility under the reserve clause. The article highlights key events leading to the CBA, such as the Senne lawsuit addressing wage violations and the controversial Save America’s Pastime Act, which exempted MiLB players from minimum wage laws. While …

Prerogative In Common: On The Emancipatory Potential Of Radical Mutuality Amid Sovereign Decisionism, Matthew Builes

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In times of crisis, liberal democracies resort to authoritarian measures that undermine core democratic values. Dominant thought in the study of emergency-era law and politics appeal to a dichotomy of normal and exceptional times, to critique or justify the turn to sovereign decisionism. While this strategy seems clear-cut, the persistence of exceptional spaces and the crises that supposedly generate them challenge existing frameworks by blurring the line between norm and exception. This project explores the prospect of radical mutual aid, as a transformative response to the enduring crisis of modernity.

Scripted For Surveillance: Parole Revocation Hearings And The Performance Of Procedure In New York, Kelsey G. Greeff

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis examines parole revocation hearings in New York as complex performances that extend carceral control beyond prison walls. Drawing on a composite vignette from the Bronx parole court, it analyzes the interplay between procedural reform, constitutional due process, and neoliberal governance. Using a dramaturgical framework informed by Michel Foucault’s discourse analysis and Judith Butler’s theory of performativity, the study identifies four interrelated processes: the judge as director, who orchestrates hearings according to institutional priorities; normalization, where repetition embeds structural inequality as routine; type-marking, the classification of parolees into predefined roles through accumulated records and cues; and the extension of …

Getting It Just Right: The Goldilocks Level Of Securities Regulation, David Nows

Nevada Law Journal

Across the world, developed economies use roughly the same framework to regulate entrepreneurial ventures raising capital. The minor differences in how developed countries regulate securities for emerging businesses lie primarily in their legal thresholds for fundraising caps, disclosure requirements, and the criteria for accredited investors. This uniform regulatory framework persists despite significant empirical evidence that the citizens of developed countries vary widely in their desire to pursue entrepreneurial opportunities, their perceptions of the number and quality of entrepreneurial opportunities available to them, and their perceptions of their own ability to succeed in entrepreneurship. This Article advocates for a new approach …

Masthead

University of the Pacific Law Review

No abstract provided.

From The Intermediate Impossible To Core Democratic Check: The Future Of The Right To Counsel For Crime Victims, Margaret Garvin

University of the Pacific Law Review

No abstract provided.

Race, Class, And The Victims’ Rights Movement, Michael Vitiello

University of the Pacific Law Review

No abstract provided.

Crypto Regulation In The Time Of Trump, Lawrence J. Trautman

Michigan Technology Law Review

Donald Trump’s election as president during November 2024 results in perhaps the most dramatic philosophical change in approach to governmental regulation in over ninety years. The Great Depression of the 1930s created a need for regulatory reform and resulted in the advent of such new regulatory frameworks as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). It has been the purpose of the SEC to create and nurture efficient securities markets enabling vibrant capital formation while preventing fraud upon the investing public. At issue is the contrast between the regulatory regime in place since 1933-34 and the Trump Administration’s desire to …

Remedies For Non-Disclosure In Asset Sales: Voidance Vs. Damages, Albert H. Choi, Kathryn E. Spier

Law & Economics Working Papers

This paper analyzes the problems of non-disclosure in the context of an asset sale between a buyer and a seller. The seller can have important information about the asset and can opportunistically decide not to disclose that information to the buyer, and the buyer may sue the seller ex post for remedy. The buyer and the court have a choice over different types of remedy. The paper considers three different remedy regimes: (1) no liability; (2) voidance; and (3) damages. Under voidance, the buyer can rescind the transaction (return the asset and get the price back), while with damages, the …

Predisposed: Race, Disability, And Death Investigations, Britney Wilson

Articles & Chapters

Disability, preexisting conditions, or underlying conditions might seem like uncontroversial factors to cite when determining an individual’s cause of death. However, many death investigators have also cited these conditions in deaths caused by state violence or neglect. For example, a 2021 study found that medical examiners cited sickle cell trait, a gene mutation, as a cause or significant factor in the deaths of forty-seven Black people who died in police custody in the past twenty-five years. Sickle cell trait is a relatively common and benign trait disproportionately found in Black people in the United States. It is also distinct from …

The Role Of Implicit Bias In Police Citizen Interactions - A Historical Review And Policy Recommendations, Catherine Anne Liedman, Ziwei Qi

International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of implicit bias on police-citizen interactions, contributing to racial disparities in stops, arrests, and the use of force. While explicit racism has declined since the Civil Rights Era, unconscious stereotypes continue to influence law enforcement decisions. Research highlights that Black individuals experience higher rates of police encounters and fatal force compared to White individuals, a pattern not fully explained by crime rates but rather by systemic and historical biases within policing institutions. Efforts to address implicit bias, such as diversity training, have shown limited long-term effectiveness. Instead, meaningful reform requires structural changes, including improved …

Inside Ai, Charles Duan

Contributions to Books

It is beautiful, the Mandelbrot set. In full, it resembles a horseshoe crab or a sideways Rorschach test, flecked with patterns of spikes and lobes. Zooming in at any point near its edge reveals infinite depths of swirls, reminiscent of Van Gogh’s Starry Night or an intricate paisley textile. The shape could easily hang on a wall, an example of fine abstract art. Yet the entirety of that shape can be computed by repeated application of a simple mathematical function:2 f(x) = x2 + c. Is all the beauty and complexity of the Mandelbrot set “inside” the symbols …

The Normalization Of Sexual Exploitation, Donna M. Hughes

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

No abstract provided.

The “Founder’S Gaze”: How The Fourth Amendment Is A Surveillance Technology That Enables Ai To Scale Control Over The Subaltern, Diego H. Alcalá Laboy

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

Much has been written about the rise of artificial intelligence and machine learning applications and how the current Fourth Amendment law has been unable to mitigate the privacy harm that these tools produce. This article explores how the development and usage of AI and machine learning models is dependent on the originalism principles of Fourth Amendment Law. Utilizing Critical Surveillance Studies and Anticolonial Theory, I posit that the Fourth Amendment is a surveillance technology that categorizes conduct, persons, and places to impose the material conditions for the subjugation of historically minoritized communities within the United States. Furthermore, this article explores …

No Law Is An Island: A Dialogical Rejoinder To Authoritarian Legalism, Julen Etxabe

All Faculty Publications

A new form of “autocratic legalism” (Scheppele) that relies on law rather than guns raises a serious challenge to democratic constitutionalism. While authors tend to focus on the “illiberal” challenge, this article is concerned with its jurisprudential dimension: what exactly is wrong with autocratic legalism? That is, to what extent does legalism, understood as the formalistic and one-sided instrumentalization of law, represent a hollowed-out, defective, and potentially harmful theory of law? And if legalism is such a theory of law, perhaps prone to authoritarianism, whence can we draw the resources to flesh out a “non-legalistic” and democratic conception of …

The New Professional: What New And Associate Dentists Need To Know About Ai, Amrita Patel Dds

The Journal of the Michigan Dental Association

This article outlines the growing importance of artificial intelligence (AI) in dentistry, particularly for newer professionals. AI's applications span radiographic analysis (identifying pathologies, enhancing diagnostic precision), treatment planning (simulating outcomes, designing aligners), and streamlining administrative tasks (voice recognition for notes, optimized scheduling). The author emphasizes that AI should be viewed as an augmentative tool to human capabilities, not a replacement for clinical judgment, especially in complex cases. It also highlights the critical considerations of data privacy (HIPAA compliance) and the enduring value of the relationship-driven nature of dentistry. Ultimately, the most successful dentists will be those who combine emerging technologies …

J Mich Dent Assoc September 2025

The Journal of the Michigan Dental Association

Each month, The Journal of the Michigan Dental Association provides news, information, and features about Michigan dentistry to our state's oral health community and the MDA's 6,200+ members. It stands as the primary publication reaching Michigan dentists.

The September issue marks the return to a hybrid publishing schedule, with print issues published bimonthly in January, March, May, July, September, and November, and online-only digital issues in February, April, June, August, October, and December. This return to print follows a suspension in May due to association-wide financial issues, with the MDA Board of Trustees approving changes in the 2025 budget to …

The Shadow Of Legal Pluralism In Indonesian Islamic Courts: Child And Spousal Maintenance, Stijn Cornelis Van Huis

The Indonesian Journal of Socio-Legal Studies

This paper is inspired by Franz von Benda-Beckmann’s notion of “bargaining in the shadow of legal pluralism” and applies this notion to spousal and child maintenance negotiations that take place between judges, husbands and wives within divorce processes at Indonesian Islamic courts. I will argue that in the context of Muslim family law practice in Indonesia, the legal plural situation does not only influence out-of-court negotiations, but formal legal processes within the Islamic courts as well. It follows Keebet von Benda-Beckmann’s example in analyzing the legal plural dynamics of women’s claiming process comprehensively, by investigating the interconnectedness of the pre-trial, …

Editorial Foreword Ijsls Volume 4 Number 1, Sulistyowati Irianto

The Indonesian Journal of Socio-Legal Studies

The late “Ibu” Keebet von Benda-Beckmann made a significant contribution to the development of legal anthropology, particularly in Indonesia, where she is regarded as a pioneer of the field. Together with her husband, Franz von Benda-Beckmann, she conducted research in Indonesia for more than 40 years, inspiring and laying the foundation for many Indonesian legal scholars to conduct research in legal anthropology and socio-legal studies. The Benda-Beckmann's works have become key references for legal anthropologists, proponents of legal pluralism, and socio-legal scholar around the world, to the extent that their theories and methodologies—particularly those related to the concept of legal …