Digital Commons Network^™

The Past, Present, And Future Of Humanitarian Parole, Farooq Chaudhry

University of Chicago Legal Forum

The humanitarian parole provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act grants the Attorney General discretion to allow people to enter the United States without an immigrant or non-immigrant visa. Despite the sparse language of the provision establishing parole, it has been used in a wide variety of contexts, ranging from one-time grants of entry into the United States for medical care to the establishment of large-scale programs for entire groups of people. The creation and administration of large-scale parole programs have been the focus of recent lawsuits, placing critical questions on the meaning and scope of the provision before judges. …

Non-Retrogression Without Law, Nicholas O. Stephanopoulos, Eric Mcghee, Christopher Warshaw

University of Chicago Legal Forum

For five straight cycles (the 1970s through the 2010s), Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act dominated redistricting in states covered by the provision. In these states, district plans had to be precleared with federal authorities before they could be implemented. Preclearance was granted only if plans wouldn’t retrogress, that is, reduce minority representation. Thanks to the Supreme Court’s 2013 decision in Shelby County v. Holder, Section 5 is no longer operative. So what happened to minority representation in formerly covered states after Section 5’s protections were withdrawn? This Article is the first to tackle this important question. We examine …

International Borders: Yours, Mine, And Ours, Beth Simmons

University of Chicago Legal Forum

International borders have become divisive issues in international and domestic politics. They have also become sites where the human rights of vulnerable persons have increasingly been documented as at risk. Policies of border hardening in the face of growing human mobility and other external threats—real and imagined—have made international borders focal sites of conflict at many levels. This Article argues that international law can reframe our understanding of bordering, leading to a more constructive approach to border management and greater respect for human rights. Borders are essentially institutions with the potential to settle coordination problems over territory. But of growing …

Borders And Boundaries In Markets: A Sociocognitive Approach For Market Definition And Implications For Antitrust, Elizabeth G. Pontikes

University of Chicago Legal Forum

Categorical distinctions are foundational to firm competition and regulation. Yet, market categories are notoriously difficult to define. The question of how to delineate markets is well-worn in the antitrust literature but is now the focus of a growing sociocognitive literature in strategy and organizational sociology.1 Historically, there has been little cross-pollination between these research areas. More integration, however, may be increasingly important in modern markets, where change is rapid, new technologies are key differentiators in many traditional industries, and platform competition is on the rise. In this paper, I introduce recent theoretical and empirical advances in sociocognitive research on categories …

The Neglected Value Of Effective Government, Richard H. Pildes

University of Chicago Legal Forum

Democratic systems inevitably seek to reflect and realize a range of values. But democratic and legal theory in recent decades have given too little attention and weight to the value and importance of delivering effective government. Much of democratic theory and legal scholarship on democracy focuses on values such as political equality, fair representation, democratic deliberation, political participation, and individual rights, among other values. But less weight is given to the capacity of government to deliver effectively on the issues citizens care about most urgently.

Yet a defining feature of—and threat to—democracy in recent years is the perceived failure of …

Cross-Border Influencers: Democracy And Externalities, Saul Levmore

University of Chicago Legal Forum

This Article explores the fact that United States law permits domestic crossborder political influences while restricting foreign interference in elections. It tries to show that the law is inconsistent in trying to balance its faith in democracy (in a given jurisdiction) with its concern for externalities. Laws forbidding all cross-border attempts to influence politics would seem to reflect the view that decision-making processes across a border should be respected rather than subject to interference, assuming that the other jurisdiction is reasonably democratic. The analysis explores, and offers examples of, the interaction between a faith in democracy and the consideration of …

The Border’S Migration, Nicole Hallett

University of Chicago Legal Forum

The border has never played a larger role in the American psyche than it does today, and yet it has never been less legally significant. Today, a noncitizen’s place of residence tells you less about what rights and privileges they enjoy than it ever has in the past. The border has migrated inward, affecting many aspects of non-citizens’ lives in the United States. The divergence between the physical and legal border is no accident. Instead, it is a policy response to the perceived loss of control over the physical border. But the physical border remains porous despite these legal changes. …

Borders That Bend, César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández

University of Chicago Legal Forum

Borders do not exist. They are made and remade. At every step, the law creates, moves, reforms, reproduces, and reinforces the border. Focusing on the boundary that México and the United States share, this essay critiques the U.S. Supreme Court’s privileging of the sovereign prerogative to control access to the nation’s territory. In their efforts to control movement across and near the border, legal doctrine permits Executive officials to deviate from ordinary legal constraints on the use of violence. This creates a modern version of the sovereign that Carl Schmitt described a century ago: extra-constitutional in origin and subject to …

Deploying Trustworthy Ai In The Courtroom: Lessons From Examining Algorithm Bias In Redistricting Ai, Wendy K. Tam Cho, Bruce E. Cain

University of Chicago Legal Forum

Deploying trustworthy AI is an increasingly pressing and common concern. In a court of law, the challenges are exacerbated by the confluence of a general lack of expertise in the judiciary and the rapid speed of technological advancement. We discuss the obstacles to trustworthy AI in the courtroom through a discussion that focuses on the legal landscape surrounding electoral redistricting. We focus on two particular issues, data bias and a lack of domain knowledge, and discuss how they may lead to problematic legal decisions. We conclude with a discussion of the separate but complementary roles of technology and human deliberation. …

The Gravity Of Legal Diffusion, Anu Bradford, Adam Chilton, Katerina Linos

University of Chicago Legal Forum

A persistent empirical finding is that bilateral trade between two countries is proportional to the size of their economies and inversely proportional to their geographic distance. We hypothesize that a similar pattern is likely to hold for the diffusion of laws. We specifically argue that countries’ propensity to update their laws to converge with the leading regulator in a given policy area is likely to be proportional to the size of their economies and inversely proportional to their geographic distance. We then empirically test this theory in the area of antitrust and assess countries’ convergence to the world’s leading antitrust …

Dividing The Body Politic, James A. Gardner

University of Chicago Legal Forum

It has long been assumed in large, modern, democratic states that the successful practice of democratic politics requires some kind of internal division of the polity into subunits. In the United States, the appropriate methods and justifications for doing so have long been deeply and inconclusively contested. One reason for the intractability of these disputes is that American practices of political self-division are rooted in, and have been largely carried forward from, premodern practices that rested originally on overtly illiberal assumptions and justifications that are difficult or impossible to square with contemporary commitments to philosophical liberalism.

The possibility of sorting …

Brazil’S Role In Global Climate Treaties, Uven Chong

International Program Papers

Since the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, Brazil has asserted an influential role in shaping international climate change treaties. The purpose of this paper is to assess Brazil’s contributions in three major climate conferences: 1992 in Rio de Janeiro, 1997 in Kyoto, and 2015 in Paris. Brazil’s negotiating strategy at these conferences reveal two powerful tactics. First, Brazil approached these political events with a view that science and technology were paramount. Second, Brazil successfully injected economic development priorities into environmentally focused negotiations. These two noteworthy tactics have shaped the climate change diplomatic discourse for the past three …

Comparative U.S. And Brazil Subconstiutionalism: A Law And Economics Approach, Joe Lorenzini

International Program Papers

No abstract provided.

How The Legal Rights Of Brazilian Indigenous People Are Inextricable From The Preservation Of Brazil’S Environment, Elizabeth Walsh

International Program Papers

The rights of Brazil’s Indigenous peoples have changed over time. Indigenous tribes went from original landowners, to enslaved people, to people protected by Brazil’s constitution but persistently marginalized. Through it all, Indigenous groups have protected Brazil’s Amazon Rainforest and Atlantic Forest, leading to healthy vegetation, biodiversity, and benefits to the global climate. This paper tracks how the rights of Indigenous groups correlate to the preservation of Brazil’s environment. Specifically, when Indigenous groups have more legally recognized land rights—as is deserved by their history, occupation of the land, and Brazil’s 1988 constitution—not only does the surrounding environment thrive, but also the …

Patent Reform As International Prestige-Seeking: Initial Insights From Brazil, Jack Brake

International Program Papers

No abstract provided.

Rights & Realities Of Self-Determination In Brazil, Starr Gibens

International Program Papers

No abstract provided.

The Abortion Debate: A Comparison Between The Us And Mexican Supreme Courts, Anastasia Shabalov

International Program Papers

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of Affirmative Action Implemented In Brazilian Universities: Increased Racial Self-Identification Among Brazilians, Natalie Isayan

International Program Papers

No abstract provided.

A Guide For United States Firms On Maintaining The Protection And Enforcement Of Trademarks And Copyrights In Mexico, Keyana Banisadre

International Program Papers

Intellectual property (IP) is a critical asset for many businesses. Understanding the laws governing IP is especially important in international markets, where US based businesses may face additional challenges in enforcing their rights. Targeted at business professionals, this paper details how U.S. firms can achieve strong IP protection and reduce risks associated with infringement and unauthorized use in Mexico. First, it will offer a basic overview of Intellectual Property and what may be protected under U.S. law. Then, offer an outline of the legal frameworks involved and best practices essential for safeguarding trademarks and copyrights in the Mexican market, as …

Challenges To Judicial Independence In Mexico, Qiaofeng Li

International Program Papers

No abstract provided.

International Law As A Tool For Reviving, Preserving, And Protecting The Tajik Language In Uzbekistan, Lindsay Saligman

International Program Papers

No abstract provided.

Uzbekistan And The Autocrat’S Parchment Problem, Paul Mapara

International Program Papers

No abstract provided.

Uzbekistan’S Decision: A New National Identity, Kirby Voss

International Program Papers

No abstract provided.

Anti-Corruption Efforts In The Republic Of Uzbekistan, Henry Wineburgh

International Program Papers

No abstract provided.

Legal Matters In Web 3: A Desk Reference, Anup Malani, M. Henderson

Books

No abstract provided.

Annual Report: 2023-2024, Coase-Sandor Institute For Law And Economics

Academic Center Annual Reports

No abstract provided.

Annual Report: 2023-2024, Constitutional Law Institute

Academic Center Annual Reports

No abstract provided.

Annual Report: 2023-2024, Malyi Center For The Study Of Institutional And Legal Integrity

Academic Center Annual Reports

No abstract provided.

Annual Report: 2023-2024, Center On Law And Finance

Academic Center Annual Reports

No abstract provided.

Predictability And Adaptation In Law And Other Markets (Chapter In A Coming Book: Research Handbook On Law And Time), Saul Levmore

Coase-Sandor Institute for Law & Economics Research Paper Series

People and enterprises that are subject to the law find it useful to know what the law is at present, but then also to anticipate future rules. If laws are stable this is easily done. Stability is more common where the judicial branch is concerned, because precedents are often valued, and for good reason. They are more often followed by judges than by those involved in other methods of lawmaking. But in all of lawmaking, and even in the private sphere, there is value to consistency and certainty. And yet, surprises can be attractive if they are not confronted on …