Digital Commons Network^™

Macular Pigment Optical Density Fluctuation As A Function Of Pupillary Mydriasis: Methodological Considerations For Dual-Wavelength Autofluorescence, Ekaterina Loskutova, John Butler, Gabriela Hernandez-Martinez, Daniel Ian Flitcroft, James Loughman

Articles

Macular pigment (MP), comprising the dietary carotenoids lutein, zeaxanthin and meso-zeaxanthin, is believed to benefit eye health and vision. Numerous clinical and research devices and techniques are currently available to facilitate MP optical density (MPOD) measurement. One of those techniques, dual-wavelength fundus autofluorescence (AF) is being increasingly used for measurement of MP in the eye. There is substantial methodological variation across the published studies that have employed this technique, including in relation to the use of mydriasis, the possible influence of which does not appear to have been addressed in the literature. This prospective cross-sectional study was designed to investigate …

Irish Construction Cross Border Trade And Brexit: Practitioner Perceptions On The Periphery Of Europe, Tara Brooks, Lloyd Scott, John P. Spillane, Katy Hayward

Articles

The United Kingdom (UK) Brexit vote of June 2016 has created unprecedented uncertainty in the construction industry in Ireland but little research to date has been undertaken on existing construction trading patterns and the potential effects of regulatory divergence and other nontariff barriers in Ireland in this context. In response, this study uses mixed methods to fill this gap in knowledge. The experience of nine construction industry interviewees is probed – five based in Northern Ireland (in the UK) and four from Ireland, which will remain in the EU after the UK leaves. The researchers’ analysis of the qualitative data …

Thermal Analysis And Post Construction Verification, Cormac Flood, Lloyd Scott

Articles

Purpose – The residential sector in Ireland accounted for 25 per cent of energy related CO2 emissions in 2016 through burning fossil fuels, a major contributor to climate change. In support of Ireland’s CO2 reduction targets, the existing housing stock could contribute greatly to the reduction of space-heating energy demand through retrofit. Approximately 50 per cent of Ireland’s 2m dwellings pre-date building regulations and are predominantly of cavity and solid wall construction, the performance of which has not been extensively investigated at present. Although commitment to thermal upgrade/retrofit of existing buildings may increase under future government policies, the poor characterisation …

Regulating Cleanups Of Homeless Encampments, Stephen J. Schnably

Articles

No abstract provided.

Capitalizing On Healthy Lawyers: The Business Case For Law Firms To Promote And Prioritize Lawyer Well-Being, Jarrod F. Reich

Articles

No abstract provided.

The Commonality Of Causation, Sergio J. Campos

Articles

This essay, a version of which was given as the inaugural Goldman Endowed Lecture at Ohio Northern University School ofLaw, discusses the treatment of causation in class actions, multidistrict litigation, and similar collective litigation. Causation is a ubiquitous element of civil claims, and typically it is treated as an individual element of a claim because it is dependent on the circumstances of each individual claimant. Even if the conduct at issue in litigation is "common, " or the same, for a group of claimants, whether that conduct caused harm to a specific claimant will depend on the unique circumstances of …

Trade's Security Exceptionalism, Kathleen Claussen

Articles

At the core of U.S. trade law is an under-studied structural dichotomy. On the one hand, well-established statutory authorities enable the President to eliminate trade barriers through negotiations with U.S. trading partners. On the other hand, different, lesser-known authorities allow the President to erect trade barriers on an exceptional basis where necessary for U.S. economic security. Rather than thinking of free trade as a source of or tool for economic security as political theorists long have, our law codifies these authorities as though they are in contrast to one another-allowing departures from the free trade norm when security so demands. …

The State Qui Tam To Enforce Employment Law, Andrew Elmore

Articles

No abstract provided.

The Supreme Court's Facilitation Of White Christian Nationalism, Caroline Mala Corbin

Articles

Doug Jager, a band student of Native-American ancestry, complained about the Christian prayers at his Georgia public school’s football games. Rather than address his concerns, the school lectured him on Christianity and proposed an alternative that appeared neutral yet would result in the continuation of the Christian prayers. In striking down the school’s proposal, Judge Frank M. Johnson Jr. understood some of the ramifications of state-sponsored Christianity.

Despite Supreme Court rulings limiting Christian invocations at public-school events, government-sponsored Christian prayers and Christian symbols remain plentiful in the United States. This proliferation of government-sponsored Christianity around the country both reflects and …

Networks Of Empathy, Thomas E. Kadri

Articles

Digital abuse is on the rise. People increasingly use technology to perpetrate and exacerbate abusive conduct like stalking and harassment, manipulating digital tools to control and harm their victims. By some accounts, 95% of domestic-abuse cases involve technology, while a sizeable chunk of the U.S. population now admits to having suffered or perpetrated serious abuse online. To make matters worse, people often trivialize digital abuse or underestimate its prevalence. Even among those who do appreciate its severity, there remains ample disagreement about how to address it.

Although law can be a powerful tool to regulate digital abuse, legal responses are …

Payday, Yonathan A. Arbel

Articles

Legislation lags behind technology all too often. While trillions of dollars are exchanged in online transactions-safely, cheaply, and instantaneously-workers still must wait two weeks to a month to receive payments from their employers. In the modern economy, workers are effectively lending money to their employers, as they wait for earned wages to be paid.

The same worker who taps a credit card to pay for groceries in semiautomated checkout lines depends on dated payroll systems that only transfer payments on a "payday." Workers, especially those living paycheck-to-paycheck, are hard-pressed to meet their daily needs and turn to expensive, short-term credit …

Religious Liberty In A Pandemic, Caroline Mala Corbin

Articles

The coronavirus pandemic caused an unprecedented shutdown of the United States. The stay-at-home orders issued by most states typically banned large gatherings of any kind, including religious services. Churches sued, arguing that these bans violated their religious liberty rights by treating worship services more strictly than analogous activities that were not banned, such as shopping at a liquor store or superstore. This Essay examines these claims, concluding that the constitutionality of the bans turns on the science of how the pathogen spreads, and that the best available scientific evidence supports the mass gathering bans.

The Unconstitutionality Of Government Propaganda, Caroline Mala Corbin

Articles

Government propaganda-the government's deliberate dissemination of false claims on matters of public interest-has increasingly become a source of concern in the United States. Not only does the current presidential administration disseminate propaganda at a rate unprecedented in the modern era, so that Americans now live in an age of government-created "alternative facts," but the internet and social media have made it possible to find receptive audiences with alarming speed and accuracy. This surge of government propaganda poses troubling questions for the health of our democracy, which requires political accountability and the valid consent of the governed to thrive.

Although the …

Challenging Racial Injustice In The Criminalization Of Homelessness In The United States: A Human Rights Approach, David Berris, Joseph Candelaria, Tamar Ezer, Lily Frances Fontenot

Articles

The criminalization of homelessness in the United States perpetuates a cycle of racial injustice and violates fundamental human rights. Longstanding discrimination in housing and law enforcement have resulted in disproportionate homelessness among Black Americans. Thus, laws and policies that criminalize life-sustaining behaviors, such as sleeping, in public further exacerbate racial disparities, punishing people for homelessness rather than addressing root causes. Criminalization results in fines that people cannot pay and criminal records, driving employment and housing out of reach and circulating individuals from the street to the criminal justice system and back. The criminalization of homelessness also directly violates international human …

The Internet As A Speech Machine And Other Myths Confounding Section 230 Reform, Mary Anne Franks, Danielle Citron

Articles

No abstract provided.

How The Internet Unmakes Law, Mary Anne Franks

Articles

No abstract provided.

The Second Amendment's Safe Space, Or The Constitutionlization Of Fragility, Mary Anne Franks

Articles

No abstract provided.

Failure To Capture: Why Business Does Not Control The Rulemaking Process, Gabriel Scheffler

Articles

Leading figures on both the political right and the political left have concluded that the agency rulemaking process is captured: that it serves to benefit businesses, at the expense of the general public. This perception appears to be supported by recent theoretical and empirical scholarship and has prompted lawmakers to introduce various proposals to reform the federal rulemaking process.

Yet as I will demonstrate in this Article, the view of the rulemaking process as captured is unwarranted. I will show that the academic literature actually provides little guidance as to the magnitude of business influence that is, the extent to …

Conduct Yourself Accordingly: Amending Bar Character & Fitness Questions To Promote Lawyer Well-Being, Janet Stearns, David Jaffe

Articles

No abstract provided.

Childminders’ Close Relationship Model Of Praxis: An Ecocultural Study In Ireland, Miriam O'Regan, Ann Marie Halpenny, Nóirín Hayes

Articles

The present study seeks to address the dearth of research focussed on childminding (family day care or family childcare) in Ireland, despite its significant role in national childcare provision. One overarching aim was to explore childminders’ cultural models of praxis and pedagogy in the Irish context. The research was conducted within the theoretical framework of Ecocultural Theory (ECT) (Weisner, 2002. “Ecocultural Understanding of Children’s Developmental Pathways.” Human Development 1759: 275–281), referencing concepts in Attachment Theory, in the context of historical and current policy in Ireland, Europe and the US over the last 30 years. A mixed method approach was adopted …

“The Very Essence Of French Cinema”(?): Jacques Feyder’S Return To France, 1944–1948, Barry Nevin

Articles

No abstract provided.

Media Literacy Beyond The National Security Frame, Lili Levi

Articles

No abstract provided.

Antitrust In Attention Markets: Objections And Responses, John M. Newman

Articles

The modern antitrust enterprise finds itself under attack. Critics complain that enforcement agencies have done nothing to stem an ever-rising tide of market concentration and corporate power. At the center of this critique lies Silicon Valley, home of a new generation of tech giants.

This symposium contribution contends that attention markets represent the largest sector of the modern economy to have gone unnoticed by antitrust regulators. If it is to fulfill its congressional mandate, the antitrust enterprise must begin paying attention to attention markets. A number of objections to this straightforward point have been raised, but each collapses under close …

Theater And Revolution In Clinical Legal Education, Jonel Newman, Fergus Lawrie, Donald Nicolson, Melissa Swain

Articles

Why does a revolutionary theatre method developed in the 1960s and 1970s by Brazilian intellectual and activist Augusto Boal belong in clinical legal education? Use of the transformative Forum Theatre method can greatly enhance legal education. Boal, a colleague and disciple of Paulo Freire (Pedagogy of the Oppressed), developed Forum Theatre as a democratic, participatory, and collaborative production between the actors and the audience, to revolutionize traditional sit-and-watch theatre. Spectators in the audience become spect-actors, halt the oppressive element in a scenario, take the place of the actors, and eliminate oppression. The over-arching goal of Forum Theatre is to illuminate …

The Court And The Suspect: Human Frailty, The Calculating Criminal, And The Penitent In The Interrogation Room, Scott E. Sundby

Articles

No abstract provided.

Confidentiality In The Courts: Privacy Protection Or Prior Restraint?, Sergio J. Campos

Articles

In civil litigation courts often deal with information that is subject to a previously imposed restraint on the ability of a court or others to use the information. Such “evidentiary prior restraints” arise most prominently in settlement agreements, which may include nondisclosure provisions that prevent information concerning the settlement from being used by parties to the agreement. But evidentiary prior restraints can also arise from prior court action, as when parties seek information subject to a protective order or sealing order made by a different court. Although evidentiary prior restraints have received great attention given recent controversies concerning sexual harassment, …

Regulating Foreign Commerce Through Multiple Pathways: A Case Study, Kathleen Claussen

Articles

This Essay looks at the regulation of foreign distilled spirits coming into the United States as a lens through which to understand how trade commitments become a part of U.S. law. The experience of distilled spirits in the last forty years demonstrates that trade agreements have the power to create new domestic rules, to lock in rules already on the books, and to be entirely powerless in the face of executive branch intransigence. But this story is just one illustration of competing authorities and unclear allegiances among the branches when it comes to issues of cross-border movement of goods and …

Our Trade Law System, Kathleen Claussen

Articles

No abstract provided.

The International Claims Trade, Kathleen Claussen

Articles

Investments are mobile in the twenty-first century international economy. They are seldom held for their duration by a single owner from a single country. They change hands and they do so for a variety of reasons, often in the course of a dispute. But the scholarship addressing what happens when international investments and legal claims against sovereigns regarding those investments change hands appears only at the margins. The practice of buying and selling claims or claims trading is well known and institutionalized in some areas of domestic litigation. For cross-border investment disputes against sovereigns, however, many of the cases discussing …

Breastfeeding Practices 2008–2009 Among Chinese Mothers Living In Ireland: A Mixed Methods Study, Qianling Zhou, Katherine Younger, Tanya M. Cassidey, Wenyi Wang, John Kearney

Articles

Background

Migration to another country has a potential influence on breastfeeding practices. A significant difference in breastfeeding rates between Irish nationals and non-nationals has been reported. This study was conducted to explore breastfeeding practices of the Chinese in Ireland, one of the largest Irish ethnic groups, and to explore the influence of living in Ireland on breastfeeding practices. This is the first and the only migration study so far on breastfeeding practices among the Chinese in Ireland.

Methods

A sequential explanatory mixed methods approach was adopted. The first phase was a cross-sectional self-administered retrospective mailed survey, to explore breastfeeding practices …