Digital Commons Network^™

Progressing Children's Right To Be Heard In Public Decision-Making: Perspectives On Using Social And Digital Media To Facilitate Children's Participation, Kevin Lalor, Brian O'Neill, Thuy Dinh

Articles

Children's right to be heard is expressed in Article 12 of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child. Mechanisms and methods to facilitate the inclusion of young people's views have been developed by youth workers, advocates and policy-makers and include diverse consultation approaches, including surveys, polls, consultation meetings and formal structures such as youth parliaments. Even though social and digital media are now pervasive in the lives of children, the potential to use these as tools to facilitate youth consultation is still surprisingly at an early stage of development. This paper presents findings from a national mixed-method study …

Micromixing Strategies For Efficient Mixing Processes: A Comprehensive Review, Delara Soltani, Tim Persoons, Sajad Alimohammadi

Articles

The demand for rapid, high-quality, and controlled mixing at the microscale has led to the development of various types of micromixers. Micromixers are commonly categorised as active, or passive based on whether they utilise external energy to enhance mixing. Passive micromixers utilise a complex geometry to enhance the diffusion coefficient at lower Reynolds numbers and induce chaotic advection at higher Reynolds numbers for effectively mixing fluids without external energy. Active micromixers, on the other hand, achieve precise, fast, and controllable mixing by employing external energy sources such as pressure, electric, magnetic, or acoustic fields. Some active methods such as magnetic …

What’S In A Name? Esg Mutual Funds And The Sec’S Names Rule, Jill Fisch, Adriana Robertson

Articles

As investor money flows into environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) mutual funds, regulators have raised growing concerns about greenwashing—specifically that a fund’s name will falsely suggest that the fund invests in companies that meet certain ESG standards. To address these concerns, the Securities & Exchange Commission (“SEC”) proposed amendments to the Investment Company Act (“Names Rule”). The amendments extend the scope of the Names Rule to funds whose names include terms such as ESG, green, or sustainable. If adopted, they will require such funds to invest at least 80% of the value of their assets in companies that meet the …

Discretionary Investing By ‘Passive’ S&P 500 Funds, Adriana Robertson, Peter Molk

Articles

So-called passive index funds—investment funds that are designed to track a prespecified underlying index—have become a dominant force in the investing landscape, collectively controlling over $12 trillion in assets. It is widely assumed that these funds are obligated to follow their underlying index, and that fund managers cannot, or do not, select portfolios that devi- ate from the index’s holdings. As a result, various critics have attacked these funds, raising concerns about their corporate governance incentives and their influence on market efficiency.

We show this assumption is overly simplistic. To do so, we examine funds that track the most prominent …

Administrative Enslavement, Adam Davidson

Articles

No abstract provided.

Tailwiz: Empowering Domain Experts With Easy-To-Use, Task-Specific Natural Language Processing Models, Austin Peters, Tim Daj, Jonah Gelbach, David Freeman, Daniel Khang

Articles

Experts outside the field of machine learning (ML) are interested in using ML techniques to analyze their textual data, but they are inhibited by a lack of convenient natural language processing (NLP) tools. To address this issue, we present tailwiz, an easy-to-use Python tool, powered by supervised fine-tuning of NLP models. tailwiz caters to domain experts by abstracting away technical ML knowledge and running conveniently on personal computers, the preferred mode of computation among domain experts. We show that tailwiz outperforms domain experts’ current textual analysis techniques on a majority of real-world tasks, up to a 384.8% F1 increase (46.18% …

Foreign Affairs, Nondelegation, And The Major Questions Doctrine, Curtis Bradley, Jack Goldsmith

Articles

Some of the Supreme Court Justices and scholars who support a reinvigoration of the nondelegation doctrine would allow for an exception for grants of authority relating to foreign affairs. Others have criticized such an exception as unprincipled or as reflecting improper “foreign affairs exceptionalism.” This Article argues against a foreign affairs exception to the nondelegation doctrine but contends that the doctrine should be applied less strictly when a statutory authorization relates to an area of independent presidential power. The President has more independent power relating to foreign affairs than domestic affairs, so this limitation on the nondelegation doctrine will do …

The Limits Of Diplomacy By Treaty: Evidence From China's Bilateral Investment Treaty Program, Adam Chilton, Weijia Rao

Articles

The web of over 3000 Bilateral Investment Treaties (“BITs”) is the primary body of international law regulating cross-border investments. Research suggests that these treaties may have had a limited impact on promoting new investments, but that they still may have helped to improve countries’ political relationships. In this paper, we document that this pattern was reversed for one of the most prolific signers of BITs: China. Using a stacked-event research design, we find that Chinese BITs are associated with an increase in Bilateral Foreign Direct Investment Flows but a divergence in voting patterns at the United Nations. We then explore …

The Warren Court V. The Roberts Court, Geoffrey Stone

Articles

No abstract provided.

What Brown Taught Us About The Constitution, David Strauss

Articles

No abstract provided.

Falsely Shouting Fire, Genevieve Lakier, Evelyn Douek

Articles

Research on legal diffusion typically focuses on laws’ initial adoption and ignores their later evolution. We develop a typology of three subsequent diffusion patterns: convergence, when countries revise laws to move closer to leading regulators; customization, when countries revise laws to move away from leading regulators; and stagnation, when countries cease legislating, leaving initially adopted laws in place. We then propose a general theory suggesting that economic size and geographic distance from leading regulators predict which of the three patterns countries follow. We explore this theory with case studies on the dynamic diffusion of antitrust laws in Russia, Colombia, and …

Structural Logics Of Presidential Disqualification: An Essay On Trump V. Anderson, Aziz Huq

Articles

No abstract provided.

Opening Dialogue, Lee Bollinger, Geoffrey Stone

Articles

No abstract provided.

The Necessary And Proper Stewardship Of Judicial Data, Aziz Huq, Zachary Clopton

Articles

Governments and commercial firms create profit and social gain by exploiting large pools of data. One source of valuable data, however, lies in public hands yet remains largely untapped. While the deep reservoirs of data produced by Congress and federal agencies have long been available for public use, the data produced by the federal judiciary is only loosely regulated, imperfectly available to the public at large, and largely ignored by scholars.

The ordinary process of litigation in federal courts generates an enormous volume of data. Especially after recent developments in large language models, this data holds immense potential. It can …

Standing And Probabilistic Injury, Curtis Bradley, Ernest Young

Articles

Standing to sue often turns on questions of probability. For example, public law plaintiffs must show that they are likely to be affected by allegedly unlawful government surveillance or environmental policies, and consumers may wish to sue private defendants over false credit reporting or data breaches that may or may not cause them financial or reputational harm in the future. This Article offers a framework for resolving a wide range of these “probabilistic standing” issues. Our core claim is that courts and commentators ask too much of standing doctrine in probabilistic cases. First, scholars sometimes seek a unified theory of …

The Role (And Limits) Of Developmental Neuroscience In Determining Adolescents’ Autonomy Rights: The Case For Reproductive And Voting Rights, Emily Buss, Julie Maslowsky, Laura Wray-Lake

Articles

No abstract provided.

The Bottini Saga: Why Housing Shortages Are Endemic In California, Richard Epstein

Articles

No abstract provided.

Dynamic Diffusion, Adam Chilton, Anu Bradford, Katerina Linos

Articles

Research on legal diffusion typically focuses on laws’ initial adoption and ignores their later evolution. We develop a typology of three subsequent diffusion patterns: convergence, when countries revise laws to move closer to leading regulators; customization, when countries revise laws to move away from leading regulators; and stagnation, when countries cease legislating, leaving initially adopted laws in place. We then propose a general theory suggesting that economic size and geographic distance from leading regulators predict which of the three patterns countries follow. We explore this theory with case studies on the dynamic diffusion of antitrust laws in Russia, Colombia, and …

Real-World Prior Art, Jonathan Masur, Lisa Ouellette

Articles

No abstract provided.

The Magnet School Wars And The Future Of Colorblindness, Sonja Starr

Articles

The Supreme Court’s recent decision striking down the use of race-based classifications in university admissions reflects its growing commitment to the concept of “colorblindness,” which has implications well beyond education. In anticipation, many schools and other actors are already moving toward alternative, facially race-neutral strategies for promoting diversity and reducing racial disparity. But what will happen when those policies too are challenged because they have race-related motives? Will courts soon find all race-conscious policymaking unlawful based on its ends? This is the next stage of the legal battle over colorblindness, and it is already underway.

The first wave of this …

On The Genealogy Of Intimate Digital Harm, Aziz Huq

Articles

No abstract provided.

The Shadow Of The Law Of The Police, Adam Davidson

Articles

No abstract provided.

The North Of Ireland During The Interregnum: A Gramcian Analysis Of Power And Crisis, Chris Ó'Rálaigh

Articles

The North of Ireland was induced in to existence over a century ago, yet the polity lacked societal-wide legitimacy. The outbreak of conflict in 1968 signalled the beginning of an interregnal period in which the old order was substantially challenged. Whilst the Good Friday Agreement was idealised as an end to this interregnum, Brexit has re-opened the battle for politico-ideological supremacy. This paper traces the contours of the hegemony-seeking strategies of the various political actors from 1968-present and assesses whether we are in the crucial and final phase of the organic crisis of the North of Ireland.

Social Care Managers' Perspectives On Statutory Registration Of Social Care Workers In Ireland, Audrey Moore, Kevin Lalor

Articles

The focus of this paper is social care managers' views on the impact of the statutory registration of social care workers in Ireland. The findings suggest that registration is welcomed by social care managers who believe that it will impact positively on societal recognition of social care workers as professionals and that it will improve accountability within the sector. However, the findings also suggest that there is confusion regarding information about registration and issues remain in the sector regarding multiplicity of titles, roles, and duties of social care workers. We conclude that the opening of the register is only a …

Framing A Feminist Phenomenological Inquiry Into The Lived Experiences Of Women Entrepreneurs, Edicleia Oliveira, Serge Basini, Thomas M. Cooney

Articles

Purpose – This article aims to explore the potential of feminist phenomenology as a conceptual framework for advancing women’s entrepreneurship research and the suitability of interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) to the proposed framework.

Design/methodology/approach – The article critically examines the current state of women’s entrepreneurship research regarding the institutional context and highlights the benefits of a shift towards feminist phenomenology.

Findings – The prevailing disembodied and gender-neutral portrayal of entrepreneurship has resulted in an equivocal understanding of women’s entrepreneurship and perpetuated a male-biased discourse within research and practice. By adopting a feminist phenomenological approach, this article argues for the importance …

Competency-Based Training Within The Prison System: Enhancing The Likelihood Of Entrepreneurial Activity Upon Release, Martina Brophy, Ana Pérez-Luño, Thomas M. Cooney

Articles

Recidivism rates across the world remain high, and one of the key reasons for this situation is that people leaving the prison system have great difficulty in securing employment. Addressing this issue must be explored from a broad perspective, but one potential career option that is under-explored is self-employment, with few entrepreneurship programmes available within prison systems. This study explores a competency-based approach to training, examining the knowledge, skills, and behaviours needed to enhance the prospects of persons with lived experience of prison becoming entrepreneurs. Using thematic analysis on ten in-depth interviews, this article identifies three categories of competency (generic,specific, …

The Belfast/Good Friday Agreement And Transformative Change: Promise, Power And Solidarity, Fionnuala Ní Aoláin

Articles

In 2023 the 1998 Belfast/Good Friday Agreement marks its twenty-fifth anniversary. For many the Agreement projects a global image of a successfully concluded end to conflict. However, key aspects of the agreement remain under-enforced or simply undelivered: in particular, provisions related to significant and wide-ranging guarantees addressing human rights and equality of opportunity. As a result, socio-economic and cultural deficits persist, undermining the capacity to achieve a ‘positive peace’. In this article we address the question of how transformative the Agreement and associated reforms have been in addressing the root causes of the conflict and the structures that underpinned it. …

Populist Politics And International Business Policy: Problems, Practices, And Prescriptions For Mnes, Paul Vaaler, Christopher Hartwell, Barclay James, Thomas Lindner, Jakob Müllner

Articles

In this editorial introduction to the Special Issue on populism, we discuss different approaches to defining populism in ways relevant to multinational enterprise (MNE) strategy and organization. In addition, we demonstrate how populist host-country government policies often target MNEs in ways that give rise to distinctly new forms of discriminatory treatment. This theoretical background sets the stage for the papers of this Special Issue, explaining the origins of these populist host-country government policies and the impact of such policies on FDI and international trade. We conclude with various suggestions for advancing IB policy research on populism, including building a better …

Opportunistic Breach Of Contract, Francesco Parisi, Brian H. Bix, Ariel Porat

Articles

Law and economics scholarship has traditionally analyzed efficient breach cases monolithically. By grouping efficient breach cases together, this literature treats the subjective motives and the distributive effects of the breach as immaterial. The Restatement (Third) of Restitution and Unjust Enrichment introduced a distinction based on the intent and the effects of the breach, allowing courts to use disgorgement remedies in cases of ‘opportunistic’ breach of contract (i.e., ‘deliberate and profitable’ breaches). In this article, we evaluate this approach, focusing on the effects of disgorgement remedies on allocative and productive efficiency, information-forcing and competitive effects, and restraint of breach-searching incentives. We …

“Criminalizing” Depositions In Arbitration, Mitch Zamoff

Articles

Civil litigation–style deposition practice is preventing commercial arbitration from reaching its full potential as an economical, efficient alternative to a civil lawsuit. Although there is consensus among alternative dispute resolution experts that meaningful limits must be imposed on arbitration discovery to unlock the efficiency benefits of arbitration, depositions continue to feature prominently in commercial arbitrations for at least three reasons. First, civil litigators are addicted to depositions. They reflexively propose overdone deposition practice in arbitrations that replicates their litigation experience. Second, arbitrators may hesitate to disallow deposition discovery out of fear that their awards will be vacated for failure to …