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Yes Under Duress: The Paradox Of The Fawn Trauma Response In Consent Law, Madeline Paoli

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

This article examines the evolving landscape of sexual consent law through the lens of trauma-informed legal analysis, focusing on the underrecognized trauma response known as fawning. Existing consent frameworks fail to capture the complex behaviors of many survivors who outwardly feign consent as a survival mechanism. To assess how fawning evidence might fit into consent statutes, I categorize U.S. state law into four subtypes of consent: affirmative, hybrid, forcible compulsion, and statutory silence. Each sub-type fails to adequately account for trauma-informed behaviors. By examining each of these subtypes and its corresponding case law, I identify statutory and doctrinal gaps that …

Piercing The Algorithmic Fog Of War: Ai-Enabled Decision-Support Systems And The Responsibility Gap For War Crimes Under The Rome Statute, Karen H. Cho

UC Law SF International Law Review

This article examines how the integration of artificial intelligence-enabled decision-support systems (AI-DSS) into military conflict complicates the attribution of individual criminal responsibility for war crimes under the Rome Statute. Unlike lethal autonomous weapons systems which are intended to supplant human agency, AI-DSS augments human decision-making across the targeting cycle while simultaneously introducing opacity and bias. These characteristics risk facilitating indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks, undermining t4he principles of distinction and proportionality under international humanitarian law. Through a case study of Israel’s deployment of systems such as “the Gospel,” “Lavender,” and “Where’s Daddy?” in Gaza, this article illustrates how algorithmic mediation obscures …

Child Welfare Upholds Black Family Separation While Denying Essential Constitutional Protections, Samantha Nichol

UC Law Journal of Race and Economic Justice

This note examines the refusal to expand constitutional protections to include proceedings concerning child welfare. A system that largely mirrors and works in tandem with the criminal system, which enjoys robust constitutional safeguards. Important to the analysis of the rejection of these protections is an acknowledgement that child welfare, or welfare more broadly, is a system that upholds racial power structures and a tradition of family separation. Just as the overincarceration of Black people has been acknowledged by legal scholars to be a particular badge and incident of slavery, the child welfare system should also be critiqued as a system …

The Private Prison Problem: Finding Pathways To Justice In HawaiʻI, Nathan Lee

UC Law Journal of Race and Economic Justice

This article considers the many obstacles in place to challenging private prison operation. Given decades of meaningful scholarship and legal activism on the “private prison problem”, it is puzzling that successful challenges to privatized incarceration remain elusive. This article seeks to introduce the lengthy and tragic history of Hawaiʻi’s use of out of state private prisons, stretching from 1995 to the present. For 30 years, people have been sent thousands of miles from home, effectively banished. Worse, Hawaiʻi has failed to take appropriate action to implement oversight or to bring individuals back home. Moreover, despite Hawaiʻi’s prominent involvement in private, …

Infinite Justice: A Critique Of Capitalism & Capital Punishment, Anthony P. Farley

UC Law Journal of Race and Economic Justice

Capitalism began in murder. Bodies were marked by slavery, colonialism, and genocide, white to have, and black to have not. Capitalism, “covered in dirt and dripping with blood,” was born of these three “primitive accumulations.” Slavery is death, and just like colonialism and genocide, it is a capital sentence. The law of capital punishment continues this legacy of murder and racism, as if on “rails to infinity.” This article uses insights from the critique of political economy to examine the death penalty, and the role of law generally, in maintaining racial and other inequalities. Law’s Justice enacts an endless repetition-&-forgetting …

The New Cja Form 24: Protecting Indigent Criminal Appellants’ Rights, Gabriel J. Chin, Hannah Bogen

UC Law Journal of Race and Economic Justice

This essay describes how the Judicial Conference of the United States elected to reform the provision of transcripts to indigent persons appealing criminal convictions in federal court. A conviction cannot be appealed without a transcript, but, by definition, indigent persons cannot afford to purchase them. A series of Supreme Court decisions held that indigent persons had to be provided transcripts without charge. However, the practical implementation of that right was blocked. In the federal system, appointed counsel had to request production of transcripts using Criminal Justice Act Form 24. That form required special permission for the court reporter to produce …

Special Joint Meeting Of The Finance Committee & Audit Subcommittee - Open Session Book 03/24/2026, Uc Law Sf

2026 Board of Directors Agenda and Materials

No abstract provided.

Academic Village Finance Authority - Open Session Book 03/12/2026, Uc Law Sf

2026 Board of Directors Agenda and Materials

No abstract provided.

Board Of Directors Quarterly Meeting - Open Session Book 03/12/2026, Uc Law Sf

2026 Board of Directors Agenda and Materials

No abstract provided.

Automating Junk Science, Lisa Waters

UC Law Journal

In the late twentieth century, the boom of forensic disciplines in criminal prosecutions helped drive mass incarceration to an all-time high. Yet scientific and legal inquiry revealed a disturbing truth: Most forensic methods accepted in criminal courts are entirely lacking in empirical support or scientific foundation—in other words, “junk science.” Forensic proponents have recently turned to computer algorithms, costly equipment, and proprietary trade secrets litigation to defend dubious techniques, ushering in a second wave of forensic reliance. But automated technology has masked rather than cured the foundational infirmities in these forensic fields.

This Article examines the growing trend of automated …

Disarming Data: An Empirical Take On The Loaded Debate About Felon-In-Possession Of A Firearm, Jonathan Abel

UC Law Journal

This Article answers a crucial empirical question at the heart of the scholarly and judicial debates about the laws governing felon-in-possession of a firearm: How often do defendants charged with this offense have violent felony convictions? Using a comprehensive dataset of over 27,000 defendants charged in California from 2021 through 2024, the study provides a novel, large-scale analysis of how prosecutors deploy this most-common gun charge. The findings substantiate longstanding concerns that felon-in-possession is overbroad in its application to nonviolent felons—only 8.5% of defendants had a “violent felony” conviction as defined by California law, rising to just 28.8% under a …

The Pay-To-Train Paradigm: How Private Settlements Are Rewriting Generative Ai Copyright Law, Kevin Afiesh

UC Law Journal

The legal landscape for generative artificial intelligence (AI) and copyright is now shaped more by private settlements that overwhelmingly favor copyright holders than by courts or legislators. As AI companies rely on copyrighted materials to train their models, content owners have filed lawsuits challenging these practices. However, instead of clarifying fair use limits in court, most disputes are resolved through private settlements. These agreements impose licensing fees, content restrictions, and compliance requirements, creating a shadow regulatory system that governs how AI companies access and use training data. Although courts and agencies have begun to weigh in, their interventions offer only …

Limits Of The Reasonable Inquiry: Artificial Intelligence And The Future Of Rule 11, Celeste Greaves

UC Law Journal

Artificial intelligence (“AI”) burst onto the legal scene and will soon revolutionize practice altogether. Despite enduring technical issues, like hallucinations and implicit bias, AI’s capabilities and potential benefits have created massive impetus toward adoption. Recent cases like Mata v. Avianca highlight the growing need for adaptation in our existing frameworks to ensure the continued legitimacy of representations to the court. The “reasonable inquiry” standard of Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure is woefully unequipped to meet this challenge for three primary reasons. First, traditional methods for determining whether a new technology has a high level of efficacy, …

Foreword, Marlene Coss

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

No abstract provided.

When Constitutional Protection For Religious Liberty Gets Lost In Translation: A Case Study From Washington State, Robert W. Gomulkiewicz

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

Protecting religious liberty can present difficult challenges when religious liberty conflicts with laws prohibiting discrimination. Balancing religious liberty and nondiscrimination requires courts to accurately apply the U.S. Supreme Court’s complex First Amendment jurisprudence, including cases that address compelled speech, expressive association, and church autonomy. Amidst all the complexity, protection for religious liberty can get lost in translation. One important venue where protection can get lost in translation is in religious liberty cases decided by state supreme courts. The decisions of state supreme courts are especially significant because they provide the authoritative construction for state statutes and the state constitution. In …

The Merit Systems Protection Board And Removal Doctrine In The Second Trump Administration, Nathan A. Thomas

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

In a federal civil service of millions, a means of adjudicating internal employment disputes objectively and efficiently is integral to the continued confidence of the federal workforce.1 This is the role occupied by the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board.2 On February 10, 2025, President Trump fired MSPB Chairman Cathy Harris without citing any reason, in direct violation of the good cause standard needed to remove an MSPB Board member. 3 President Trump’s unjustified firing of Chairman Harris reopens the ongoing assault on removal doctrine, but this note argues that the structure of the MSPB is constitutional under current removal doctrine. …

Masthead

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

No abstract provided.

Geofence Surveillance And The Possibility Of Radicalization, Bardia Moghtaderi Zadeh

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

No abstract provided.

Advancement & Communications Committee Meeting - Open Session Book 02/19/2026, Uc Law Sf

2026 Board of Directors Agenda and Materials

No abstract provided.

Educational Policy Committee Meeting – Open Session Book 02/19/2026, Uc Law Sf

2026 Board of Directors Agenda and Materials

No abstract provided.

The Comparator Argument In Trans-Healthcare Ban Cases, Craig Konnoth

UC Law Journal

As states have increasingly restricted gender affirming care for minors across the nation (reinforced by a recent Executive Order by President Trump), and though the Supreme Court ruled on one such state ban, a powerful argument has largely been overlooked. This argument emphasizes the fact that transgender minors are not alone in receiving gender affirming care. Cisgender minors also receive such care for precisely the same reasons as transgender minors— unwanted breast tissue development, undesired hair growth, unusual vocal development, and puberty onset. Indeed, cisgender children receive such care at higher numbers than trans children, and many of the medications …

Systemic Jurisdictional Ambiguity, Norman W. Spaulding

UC Law Journal

The purpose of jurisdictional rules is to provide reasonably clear signals about when a court does and does not have power over a case. Judging from the modern Supreme Court’s rules for determining jurisdiction, however, one would think jurisdictional rules need neither be clear nor consistent. From rules for determining standing, federal question jurisdiction, and personal jurisdiction to Erie doctrine and the power of Congress to create non-Article III courts—rules that affect the administration of justice in millions of cases every year—modern jurisdictional rules are notorious for their inconsistency and ambiguity. This level of ambiguity is remarkable given the zeal …

A Case Against Mass Deportation: The Japanese American Internment Camps And Recent Treatment Of Korematsu, Isaac Bloch

UC Law Journal

The large-scale deportation of non-citizens has become a preeminent policy issue. Unfortunately, executive curtailment of immigrant communities’ liberty is not without historical parallels. During World War II, federal officials sent individuals of Japanese descent to internment camps through a series of executive orders and military proclamations. Although attorneys in the Department of Justice believed aspects of these actions were unconstitutional at the time, the administration prevailed at the nation’s highest court. Can recognition of this past wrong aid challenges to contemporary immigration enforcement regimes? How do our courts formally account for the most egregious jurisprudential errors of the past, and …

The Equal Protection Problem: The Right To Vote, Gerrymandering, And Lessons From Canada, Gabriel Renneisen

UC Law Journal

In the wake of Rucho v. Common Cause, partisan gerrymandering remains a nonjusticiable political question. This retreat from judicial oversight leaves a significant gap in the protection of democratic governance. The United States Constitution, as currently interpreted, offers little substantive support for voters’ rights as such. Courts locate the right to vote in the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, but that Clause protects equal access to voting rights—not meaningful participation, representation, or influence; it requires scrutiny only where legislatures rely on unconstitutional criteria to classify voters. Notably, at the time of this writing, California and Texas are in …

A Set Of One, David L. Faigman

UC Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Beyond Exceptionalism: The Illusory Ideal Of Access To Justice, Alan Uzelac

UC Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Civil Litigation In The Nineteenth Century Landraad Of The Former Dutch East-Indies (Indonesia): Simplification Aimed At Access To Justice?, Cornelis H. Van Rhee

UC Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Mono Basin Project: Remedying Environmental Injustice Through Tribal Beneficial Use Designations, Molly Greene

UC Law Environmental Journal

Due to a history of violence, dispossession, and racism, Native American tribes in California face structural disadvantages and inequities with respect to water rights. At the same time, tribes lack meaningful legal remedies to gain access to the water resources necessary to maintain their ways of life. One key issue is that California water agencies traditionally did not consider tribal water uses when implementing water quality control laws, leaving such uses unprotected. For years, tribes have urged the State to fill in these gaps in the law by adopting tribal beneficial uses (“TBUs”), which would protect tribal water uses, such …

Recognizing Arab Climate Refugees Under Both International And Regional Law, Fatemah Albader, Rahima Musaliar

UC Law Environmental Journal

Climate change is increasingly displacing populations worldwide, yet existing international and regional legal frameworks, including the 1951 Refugee Convention and the Arab Charter on Human Rights, fail to recognize climate refugees as a protected category. These legal instruments define refugees narrowly, limiting protection to individuals fleeing persecution on specific grounds such as race, religion, or political opinion. As climate change accelerates environmental degradation, resulting in extreme weather events, desertification, and resource scarcity, millions of people are being forced to migrate, often across international borders, without legal recourse or asylum rights. This Article argues that climate refugees should be afforded the …

The Esg Disclosure Paradox: Gaps In Environmental Justice Criteria, Barbara Ballan

UC Law Environmental Journal

Environmental Justice (“EJ”) and Environmental Social Governance (“ESG”) are terms used to address the impacts of corporate actions as well as environmental and social regulation on the people and the planet. ESG disclosure is a corporate-driven invention that aims to measure progress towards sustainability and disclose environmental and social criteria while fostering value for businesses. EJ, by contrast, emerged as a social movement that evolved into regulatory frameworks. Governmental agencies and EJ advocates are utilizing EJ mapping tools and metrics to assess inequalities in environmental impacts caused by private and public policy and decision-making. Though these concepts may initially create …