Digital Commons Network^™

Searching For Justice: Moving Towards A Trans Inclusive Model Of Access To Justice In Canada, Evan Vipond, Pierre Cloutier De Repentigny

Dalhousie Law Journal

Access to justice literature has paid little attention to the role of gender identity and gender expression as barriers to justice that must be addressed. As a marginalized and disenfranchised population, trans and gender nonconforming people experience specific barriers to justice that cisgender people typically do not. This paper seeks to address the gap in access to justice literature by attending to specific barriers to justice that trans people face in Canada. These barriers include socioeconomic inequalities; exclusion from the legal system; sex/gender certification and bigenderism within the legal system; and transphobia and cissexism within the legal system. Calling for …

Foreword: Voting Rights In A Politically Polarized Era, Maureen Edobor, Christopher B. Seaman

Washington and Lee Law Review

American democracy is under profound stress. Increasing polarization and a winner-take-all mentality to politics have led to increased conflict both within the halls of Congress and nationwide. In an era of exceedingly close elections where control of the Presidency, Congress, and state governments can turn on a relative handful of votes, the laws and processes governing democracy have themselves become a battleground.

Annual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration Lecture 1-26-24, Roger Williams University School Of Law

School of Law Conferences, Lectures & Events

No abstract provided.

The Ghost Of Jim Crow: The Human Right To Housing, Generational Wealth, The Neighborhood Homes Investment Act, And The American Legal System, Miranda Guedes

University of Miami Race & Social Justice Law Review

No abstract provided.

Beyond The Borders: The Rise Of Judicial Corruption And Universal Jurisdiction, Rose Mahdavieh

University of Miami Race & Social Justice Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Subfederal In Immigration Polarization, Huyen Pham, Pham Hoang Van

Faculty Scholarship

The framing of subfederal immigration regulation as a red- blue divide is conventional wisdom. As more states, cities, and counties have engaged in the regulation of immigrants within their jurisdictions, it is not particularly surprising to see deep-red states like Texas enacting laws that restrict the rights of immigrants in their jurisdictions (e.g., requiring police within the state to honor detainers issued by United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)) or deep-blue states like California enacting laws that protect immigrants’ rights (e.g., issuing driver’s licenses without requiring proof of lawful immigration status).

Rather than only reflecting national polarization on immigration …

Clearing The Bar: Catharine Waugh Mcculloch And Illinois Legal Reform, Sandra L. Ryder

DePaul Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Bad Therapy: Conceptualizing The Teaching Of “Thinking Like A Lawyer” As Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Chelsea Baldwin

St. Mary's Law Journal

Law students and lawyers experience mental illness and substance abuse at higher rates than the general population and other learned professions. This is bad for an individual’s wellbeing as well as their clients and society because mental illness and substance abuse increases stress which in turn decreases effective decision-making and judgment, and in worst case scenarios leads to attrition as individuals choose death by suicide which has cascading social and economic impacts. This Article identifies practices in legal education that likely combine in a causal mechanism, although not a sole cause, to the higher rates of mental illness and substance …

Law School News: Rwu Law Students Go Above And Beyond With Pro Bono 5-3-2024, Suzi Morales

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Interpretive Divergence In The New York Court Of Appeals, Ethan J. Leib

Journal of Legislation

This Article focuses attention on the New York Court of Appeals, which is decidedly formalist about contract interpretation but decidedly contextualist about statutory interpretation. It explores some recent exemplary cases to show where the New York Court of Appeals tends to land in what turns out to be, for this court at least, two different battlefields in the law of interpretation. Finding that there is “interpretive divergence” between statutory and contract cases, the Article then reflects on the practice of divergence more generally, revisiting assumptions about why anyone might have thought harmonization was sensible in the first place.

Designing And Developing A Medical-Legal Partnership To Address Cancer Patients' Health-Harming Legal Needs, Allison B. Dowling, Vicki W. Girard, Megan E. Gordon, Abigail Sweeney, Christopher M. Gallagher, Amy D. Ly, Lisa Kessler, Deborah F. Perry

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The Georgetown University's Cancer Legal Assistance and Well-being Project launched in 2020 as a medical-legal partnership that works with health care providers at a Washington, D.C. safety-net hospital to treat the health-harming legal needs of historically and intentionally marginalized patients with cancer.

Foreword, Deborah W. Denno, Erica Valencia-Graham

Fordham Law Review

This Foreword overviews an unprecedented Symposium on these wide ranging topics titled The New AI: The Legal and Ethical Implications of ChatGPT and Other Emerging Technologies. Hosted by the Fordham Law Review and cosponsored by Fordham University School of Law’s Neuroscience and Law Center on November 3, 2023, the Symposium brought together attorneys, judges, professors, and scientists to explore the opportunities and risks presented by AI, especially GenAI like ChatGPT. The discussion raised complex questions concerning AI sentience and personal privacy, as well as the future of legal ethics, education, and employment. Although the AI industry uniformly predicts ever more …

Access To Justice And The Legal Profession: Three Questions, Trevor C. W. Farrow

Articles & Book Chapters

There is an increasing recognition – from all sectors of the legal system, including the former Chief Justice of Canada – that justice is in crisis. Even though we have some of the best judges, lawyers, and law schools in the world, delays in the civil, criminal, and family justice systems are massive and increasing. Costs of legal help are going up. An increasing number of people are trying to represent themselves. Legal aid is available only for the least well-off and only for a limited range of services. Many communities feel alienated and do not see themselves represented by …

Rwu Law Alumni Newsletter April 2024, Roger Williams University School Of Law

RWU Law

No abstract provided.

Law School News: Rwu School Of Law Launches Institute For Race And The Law And Celebrates Champions For Justice 3-22-2022, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Champions For Justice 2024, Roger Williams University School Of Law

School of Law Conferences, Lectures & Events

No abstract provided.

Public Health Impacts And Intra-Urban Forced Displacement Due To Climate Gentrification In The Greater Miami Area—Community Lawyering For Environmental Justice And Equitable Development, Theresa Pinto, Abigail L. Fleming, Sabrina Payoute, Elissa Klein

University of Miami Law Review

Because Miami-Dade County is “ground zero” for such climate effects as sea-level rise and increasingly hazardous, climate-driven Atlantic hurricanes, the coral rock ridge that runs along the Eastern coast of South Florida is a prime target for redevelopment and “climate” gentrification. Through a community and movement lawyering for environmental justice approach, we partnered with local community organizations to contribute to the ongoing work of community-driven equitable development. In partnership, we developed an environmental public health study to understand and document the public health effects on disadvantaged communities in Miami-Dade County from forced intra-urban displacement due to redevelopment that is being …

P*Law 2024, Center For Public Service Law

2023–2024 Flyers

This document outlines the full schedule for P*LAW Week 2024 at Cardozo School of Law, hosted by the Center for Public Service Law. Held from January 29 to February 1, the week featured panels, workshops, and student-led presentations on critical public interest topics, including immigration, incarceration, housing justice, student debt, reproductive rights, and exoneration. With contributions from legal professionals, alumni, faculty, and students, the events provided education, mentorship, and career development opportunities for those pursuing paths in public interest law.

Cyber Security: A Lawyer’S Ethical Duty, Meagan Folmar

St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics

No abstract provided.

“Zealous” Professional Ethics: The Transcendence Of Natural Law, Legal Positivism, And The Ethical Stage In The U.S. Legal Ethics System And The Moral Dilemma That Surround Zealous Representation, Sudarsanan Sivakumar, Marshall Maina

St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics

The zealous pursuit of law has its own ideals and dogma that sets it apart from the other rules in the Model Rules of Professional Conduct. Decades after many enactments and amendments, there still exists many debates considering its operation as to whether an attorney owes a duty toward society over the representation of the client. This is a Delphi method that has made even the best seasoned ‘Justiciar’ and ‘Legislator’ unable to find the proper guidelines to implement upon the Legal Superstructure. The Model Rules of Professional Conduct attempt to clear the fog around the existing principle of Zealous …

The Ethical Lawyer: Beyond The Rules, Nick Badgerow

St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics

Does being a lawyer mean more than the mere pursuit of a client’s cause and resulting (hoped for) financial success and professional standing, while avoiding discipline? This article invites a consideration of what it means to be a true “professional” in the practice of law. First, the article explores the definition of the term “professional,” and proceeds to examine the obligations undertaken by lawyers (a) in their oath of admission, and (b) in codes of professional conduct. However, the author posits, should not the true professional aspire to more than the mere compliance with these minimum standards? In answer, the …

Artificial Intelligence And Legal Malpractice Liability, Vincent R. Johnson

St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics

No abstract provided.

The Futures Of Law, Lawyers, And Law Schools: A Dialogue, Benjamin H. Barton, Sameer M. Ashar, Michael J. Madison, Rachel F. Moran

Scholarly Works

On April 19 and 20, 2023, Professors Bernard Hibbitts and Richard Weisberg convened a conference at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law titled “Disarmed, Distracted, Disconnected, and Distressed: Modern Legal Education and the Unmaking of American Lawyers.” Four speakers concluded the event with a spirited conversation about themes expressed during the proceedings. Distilling a lively two days, they asked: what are the most critical challenges now facing US legal education and, by extension, lawyers and the communities they serve? Their agreements and disagreements were striking, so much so that Professors Hibbitts and Weisberg invited those four to extend their …

Teaching Critical Use Of Legal Research Technology, Jennifer E. Chapman

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Dignity Deferred: Supriyo V. Union Of India And Lgbtq Rights, Ryan Thoreson

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

In Supriyo v. Union of India, a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court declined to find that same-sex couples have a right to marry under India’s Constitution. The various opinions in the case repeatedly recognised and affirmed the dignity of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people, but ultimately found that exclusion from civil marriage did not run afoul of constitutional guarantees. In this Essay, I examine the limited understanding of dignity employed by the bench in Supriyo, juxtaposing this with both domestic and comparative LGBTQ rights decisions that embraced a more substantive understanding of dignity. I argue that …

Charter Schools And Emos: Who's In Charge, Brendan Glynn

American University Business Law Review

Charter schools are a popular sight in the educational field today. For the IRS to consider a charter school a 501(c)(3) organization, nonprofit charter schools must be organized and operated exclusively for educational purposes, meaning purposes relating to the instruction of individuals to improve their capabilities. To be organized for educational purposes, the articles of the organization must limit the entity to educational purposes while also preventing the organization from engaging in substantial noneducational activities. To operate exclusively for educational purposes, an organization’s activities must be substantially in furtherance of educational purposes while also not substantially benefitting a private individual. …

Memories Of An Affirmative Action Activist, Margaret E. Montoya

Seattle University Law Review

Some twenty-five years ago, the Society of American Law Teachers (SALT) led a march supporting Affirmative Action in legal education to counter the spate of litigation and other legal prohibitions that exploded during the 1990s, seeking to limit or abolish race-based measures. The march began at the San Francisco Hilton Hotel, where the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) was having its annual meeting, and proceeded to Union Square. We, the organizers of the march, did not expect the march to become an iconic event; one that would be remembered as a harbinger of a new era of activism by …

Out-Of-State Abortion On Company Dime: An Analysis Of State Legislation And Erisa, Erin Elizabeth Hanlon

American University Business Law Review

This Note analyzes the various types of state abortion bans, focusing on those with aiding and abetting clauses. These bans impose civil liability for anyone, including companies providing abortion access benefits, who help a pregnant person gain access to abortion. Additionally, this Note analyzes federal legislation to determine if any retaliatory actions taken against companies violate federal law. This legislation includes the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (“ERISA”) which creates uniformity in insurance and benefits coverage by superseding any state law that references or relates to an ERISA plan. Many advocates believe that ERISA is a company’s greatest defense to …

Using Social Media As A Tool To Inform Person-Centred Justice, Matthew Dylag

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Many leading access to justice organizations recognize the importance of including the public’s perspective within programming and policy development. One key question underlying this approach is, how can organizations learn about the public’s experience with legal problems and the law? Noting that conversations about legal problems provide evidence of such experiences, this paper presents a study that examines conversations posted to the social media platform Reddit. It argues that social media can be leveraged to better understand the public’s experience with legal problems and the law and, in doing so, help to inform a person-centred perspective of justice.

Upstream Lawyering: A Framework For Poverty Law, Kate Mitchell

Faculty Publications & Other Works

This Article introduces an upstream lawyering framework within the context of the history of poverty law and impact lawyering. While there have been several theories promoting systems change work, the upstream framework, stemming from public health theories and championed by medical-legal partnerships, offers a model for promoting and informing systemic policy. Using the public health concept of upstreaming, this Article explores lawyering practices that can be utilized to address the root causes of social and legal drivers of health inequity, poverty, and oppression. Part I of this Article provides a refreshed overview of the history of poverty law and civil …