Digital Commons Network^™

The Dis-United States Of Liminality: The Trump Campaign Spectacle, Joan Davison

Faculty Publications

Americans are experiencing difficult challenges during the US transition away from decades of relative primacy and prosperity. The fact is that globalization, technology, and waning unipolarity differentially impact people, with certain groups disproportionately disadvantaged. These individuals encounter diminishing likelihood of upward mobility and flagging social status. The situation and its consequences can be understood as a liminal condition in which individuals and groups transition to another identity. During this precarious time, people often embrace manipulative politicians, or tricksters, who theatricalize the circumstances, distort the real source of difficulties, and offer fixes that demonize others. Donald Trump now performs as the …

Chapter 2: Where The Children Are: Exploring Quality, Community, And Support For Family, Friend And Neighbor Child Care, Eva M. Shivers, Flora Farago

Faculty Publications

This chapter describes two studies examining quality of care in Family, Friend, and Neighbor (FFN) child care settings in two separate communities. The findings from two studies are shared and discussed through the use of a socio-cultural theoretical lens that necessitates an exploration of specific communities’ histories as well as current political context. We explicitly list and describe implications for designing successful and culturally responsive professional development initiatives and policies that are responsive to this hard-to-reach group of providers and the families they serve.

Finding Customary International Law, Ryan M. Scoville

Faculty Publications

Established doctrine holds that customary international law (“CIL”) arises from general and consistent state practice that is backed by a sense of legal obligation. Contemporary litigation requires federal courts to apply this doctrine to identify the contours of CIL in a diverse collection of cases ranging from civil actions under the Alien Tort Statute to criminal prosecutions under the Maritime Drug Law Enforcement Act. This Article provides an in-depth look at how federal judges carry out this task. Conducting a citation analysis of opinions published since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2004 decision in Sosa v. Alvarez-Machain, this Article analyzes …

Imprisonment Inertia And Public Attitudes Toward "Truth In Sentencing", Michael M. O'Hear, Darren Wheelock

Faculty Publications

In the space of a few short years in the 1990s, forty-two states adopted truth in sentencing (“TIS”) laws, which eliminated or greatly curtailed opportunities for criminal defendants to obtain parole release from prison. In the following decade, the pendulum seemingly swung in the opposite direction, with thirty-six states adopting new early release opportunities for prisoners. However, few of these initiatives had much impact, and prison populations continued to rise. The TIS ideal remained strong. In the hope of developing a better understanding of these trends and of the prospects for more robust early release reforms in the future, the …

How Cosmopolitan Are International Law Professors?, Ryan M. Scoville, Milan Markovic

Faculty Publications

This Article offers an empirical answer to a question of interest among scholars of comparative international law: why do American views about international law appear at times to differ from those of other countries? The authors contend that part of the answer lies in legal education. Conducting a survey of the educational and professional backgrounds of nearly 150 legal academics, the authors reveal evidence that professors of international law in the United States often lack significant foreign legal experience, particularly outside of the West. Sociological research suggests that this tendency leads professors to teach international law from predominantly nationalistic and …

Persuading With Precedent: Understanding And Improving Analogies In Legal Argument, Jacob M. Carpenter

Faculty Publications

When writing persuasive briefs, attorneys use comparisons — metaphors or case-based analogies — to help explain their analyses and support their positions. But attorneys use the two types of comparisons for very different purposes. Several legal scholars have explored how attorneys use metaphors in their legal writing. While the existing scholarship on legal metaphors is excellent, it is not sufficient to properly understand how to best draft case-based analogies. Unfortunately, case-based analogies have been surprisingly understudied despite their critical role in persuasive legal briefs. Not surprisingly, many attorneys are unaware of how far short their analogies fall from reaching their …

Improving Treatment Of Neurodevelopmental Disorders: Recommendations Based On Preclinical Studies, Judith R. Homberg, Evan J. Kyzar, Adam Michael Stewart, Michael Nguyen, Manoj K. Poudel, David J. Ecchevaria, Adam D. Collier, Siddharth Gaikwad, Viktor M. Klimenko, William Norton, Julian Pittman, Shun Nakamura, Mamiko Koshiba, Hideo Yamanouchi, Sergey A. Apryatin, Maria Luisa Scattoni, David M. Diamond, Jeremy F.P. Ullmann, Matthew O. Parker, Richard E. Brown, Cai Song, Allan V. Kalueff

Faculty Publications

Introduction: Neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) are common and severely debilitating. Their chronic nature and reliance on both genetic and environmental factors makes studying NDDs and their treatment a challenging task.Areas covered: Herein, the authors discuss the neurobiological mechanisms of NDDs, and present recommendations on their translational research and therapy, outlined by the International Stress and Behavior Society. Various drugs currently prescribed to treat NDDs also represent a highly diverse group. Acting on various neurotransmitter and physiological systems, these drugs often lack specificity of action, and are commonly used to treat multiple other psychiatric conditions. There has also been relatively little progress …

Exploring Differing Experiences Of Homelessness In Hawai‘I: Extended Executive Summary, Kristen D. Gleason Phd, Charlene Baker, John P. Barile

Faculty Publications

This study focused on understanding the diversity of ways individuals and families have experienced homelessness in Hawai‘i. Understanding this diversity can help target solutions and better address the range of service needs (Jahiel & Babor, 2007). Several research studies over the past two and a half decades have examined diversity in homeless populations by categorizing them into groups or types (e.g., Aubry, Klodawsky, & Coulombe, 2012; Bonin, Fournier, & Blais, 2009; Solarz & Bogat, 1990). One early study by Kuhn and Culhane (1998) is perhaps the most famous and applied typology of homelessness, classifying homeless individuals based on their shelter …

Exploring Differing Experiences Of Homelessness In Hawai‘I: Full Report To Stakeholders Part Ii, Kristen D. Gleason Phd, John P. Barile, Charlene Baker

Faculty Publications

Because high rates of homelessness have become a growing concern across the U.S., a number of policies, programs, and strategies have been developed to prevent homelessness and to addess the needs of those without a home (Culhane, Park, & Metraux, 2011). As it is unlikely that a one sizefits-all approach to homelessness can be effective, it is important for there to be a wide range of service approaches available to address the issue (Yuan, Vo, & Gleason, 2014). As important is determining how to best target the available services to meet the varied needs of those experiencing homelessness.

Exploring Differing Experiences Of Homelessness In Hawai‘I: Full Report To Stakeholders Part I, Kristen D. Gleason Phd, Charlene Baker, John P. Barile

Faculty Publications

In many cities and towns across the U.S., homelessness has arisen as a prominent and difficult problem to address (Quigley, Raphael, & Smolensky, 2001). It has become a public health and humanitarian concern at both the national level and at the state level in Hawai‘i. The recent Homeless Service Utilization Report for Hawai‘i State, which tracks administrative data related to homeless service usage across the state, shows that the number of homeless individuals in Hawai‘i has steadily grown since 2007, with a record 14,954 individuals receiving services in the last fiscal year (Yuan, Vo, Gleason, & Azuma, 2016). Hawai‘i is …

Interdisciplinary Social Action, Leonard A. Jason, Damani Mcclellan, Kristen D. Gleason Phd

Faculty Publications

In this article, we will first consider the starting point for change. Social change is more likely to occur when we have a passionate interest in a particular area. Often the beginning of social change occurs when we have a passionate interest in a particular area. Often the beginning of social change occurs with the recognition that something is wrong and unfair. This recognition may take the form of a flash of outrage, but the feeling is clear: this needs to change. We may not even know why we feel this way, but our intuition can steer us in …

Introduction: What We Know And Need To Know About The State Of 'Access To Justice' Research, Elizabeth Chambliss, Renee N. Knake, Robert L. Nelson

Faculty Publications

Ongoing, systematic research on civil legal needs and services is an essential component of improving the quality and availability of such services. Collaboration among researchers, legal services providers, and regulators will only become more important as innovations in the delivery of legal services progress. This volume brings together sixteen white papers by subject matter experts who assess "what we know and need to know" about various aspects of civil legal services delivery. The product of a partnership between the South Carolina Law Review and the ABA Commission on the Future of Legal Services, the collection is intended to serve as …

Principled Policing: Warrior Cops And Guardian Officers, Seth W. Stoughton

Faculty Publications

Policing in the United States is in crisis. Public confidence in policing is at the lowest point since the Rodney King beating. A bare majority of Americans still report confidence in the police, and an unprecedented number of people report no or very little confidence in policing. A long history of poor police/community relations in minority and low-income neighborhoods has been exacerbated by egregious acts of misconduct, some of which have been captured on video and shared on social media. Activists, politicians, and police officials themselves have called for better education and equipment, from de-escalation training to body-worn camera systems. …

Urban Microbiomes And Urban Agriculture: What Are The Connections And Why Should We Care?, Gary M. King

Faculty Publications

© Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2016. A large percentage (~50 %) of the global human population lives in urban systems. The transition from largely rural to urban lifestyles began gradually, but has accelerated. Given the magnitude of anthropogenic changes in the Earth system as a whole and concerns about resource availability and continued population growth, questions about the sustainability of urban systems have become a focal point for a variety of research and civic efforts, including programs promoting urban agriculture as a means to provide local food sources and to better manage critical nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus. The …

Is Genetic Drift A Force?, Charles H. Pence

Faculty Publications

One hotly debated philosophical question in the analysis of evolutionary theory concerns whether or not evolution and the various factors which constitute it (selection, drift, mutation, and so on) may profitably be considered as analogous to “forces” in the traditional, Newtonian sense. Several compelling arguments assert that the force picture is incoherent, due to the peculiar nature of genetic drift. I consider two of those arguments here—that drift lacks a predictable direction, and that drift is constitutive of evolutionary systems—and show that they both fail to demonstrate that a view of genetic drift as a force is untenable. I go …

Self-Help Reimagined, Lois R. Lupica

Faculty Publications

We will never have enough lawyers to serve the civil legal needs of all low- and moderate-income (LMI) individuals who must navigate civil legal problems. A significant part of the access to justice toolkit must include self-help materials. That much is not new; indeed, access to justice commissions across the country have been actively developing pro se guides and forms for decades. But the community has hamstrung its creations in two major ways. First, by focusing these materials on educating LMI individuals about formal law, and second, by considering the task complete once the materials are available to self-represented individuals. …

Remedy Realities In Business-To-Consumer Contracting, Amy J. Schmitz

Faculty Publications

Professor Jean Braucher greatly contributed to the exploration of consumer and contract law by questioning how the law operates in the real world and highlighting the importance of “law in action.” In recognition of that contribution, this Article focuses on law in action with respect to consumers’ quest to obtain remedies regarding their business-to-consumers (“B2C”) contracts. Currently, consumers often have no practical recourse with respect to B2C purchase problems due to the complexity, cost, and inconvenience of the processes for obtaining remedies. Accordingly, stated legal rights become meaningless for individuals living in the real world. This Article, therefore, explores access …

Clash Of Cultures: Epistemic Communities, Negotiation Theory, And International Lawmaking, S. I. Strong

Faculty Publications

This Article seeks to illuminate a number of truths about the current deliberations at UNCITRAL by applying the concept of epistemic communities to the UNCITRAL negotiation process. This analysis will help various participants, including state delegates, inter-governmental organizations (IGOs), and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), appreciate the dynamics at issue in the treaty deliberations and thereby improve negotiation techniques and outcomes.' In particular, this Article considers how disparities between different epistemic communities involved in the UNCITRAL process could affect the shape and future of the proposed convention and whether the clash of cultures could prove fatal to the development of a new …

Realizing Rationality: An Empirical Assessment Of International Commercial Mediation, S. I. Strong

Faculty Publications

For decades, parties, practitioners and policymakers have believed arbitration to be the best if not only realistic means of resolving cross-border business disputes. However, the hegemony of international commercial and investment arbitration is currently being challenged in light of rising concerns about increasing formalism in arbitration. As a result, the international community has sought to identify other ways of resolving these types of complex commercial matters, with mediation reflecting the most viable option. Numerous public and private entities have launched initiatives to encourage mediation in international commercial and investment disputes, and the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) …

Collective Corporate Knowledge, The Federal False Claims Act, And The Future Of Federal Health Programs, Sam F. Halabi

Faculty Publications

While recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions have drawn focus to whether what corporations “say” is protected by the First Amendment or what they “believe” is protected by the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the more relevant inquiry for a wide range of statutory and regulatory regimes is what corporations “know.” At the core of that question is what guides information relevant for legal compliance (including product safety, employee welfare, and material risks considered by investors) from its source to any given point in the firm, including decision-makers. This Article analyzes the federal False Claims Act as an underexploited resource in …

You As A Brand: A Legal History, Lyrissa Lidsky

Faculty Publications

Dr. Samantha Barbas’ book, Laws of Image: Privacy and Publicity in America, makes an original, important, and engaging contribution to the history of the privacy law in the United States. In the process, the book illuminates how we became a culture obsessed with image management and how the law developed and continues to evolve to protect our rights to become our own personal brands.

Writing In Law Reviews, Bar Association Journals, And Blogs (Part I), Douglas E. Abrams

Faculty Publications

Lawyer's commonly write as the client's representative, but this article explores three opportunities for lawyers who wish also to write sometimes in non-representational roles. Part I here discusses writing or co-writing law review articles.

Restoring The Civil Jury In A World Without Trials, Dmitry Bam

Faculty Publications

Early in this nation’s history, the civil jury was the most important institutional check on biased and corrupt judges. Recently, concerns about judicial bias, especially in elected state judiciaries, have intensified as new studies demonstrate the extent of that bias. But the jury of Hamilton, Madison, and Jefferson is nowhere to be found. In fact, the civil jury is virtually dead. It is used in less than 1% of all civil cases, and even when it makes a rare appearance, the jury’s powers have been significantly curtailed.

This article argues that we must reimagine the civil jury to match the …

Sensation, Intuition, Space, And Time In Hegel’S Philosophy Of Subjective Spirit, Willem A. Devries

Faculty Publications

The subject of space, time, sensation, and intuition in Hegel is complicated, more so in Hegel than in Kant, and for good reason. Hegel rejected Kant’s Transcendental Idealism; besides the subjective reality Kant attributed to space and time, Hegel also attributed to them a truly objective reality. According to Hegel, space and time qualify finite things as they really are. Moreover, I shall argue, space and time, in Hegel’s view, have two different modes of subjective presence. We can illuminate these distinctive modes of subjective presence by comparing Hegel’s with Wilfrid Sellars’ strikingly similar arguments against Transcendental Idealism.

Comparison Of Electrophysiological Auditory Measures In Fishes, Karen P. Maruska, Joseph A. Sisneros

Faculty Publications

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016. Sounds provide fishes with important information used to mediate behaviors such as predator avoidance, prey detection, and social communication. How we measure auditory capabilities in fishes, therefore, has crucial implications for interpreting how individual species use acoustic information in their natural habitat. Recent analyses have highlighted differences between behavioral and electrophysiologically determined hearing thresholds, but less is known about how physiological measures at different auditory processing levels compare within a single species. Here we provide one of the first comparisons of auditory threshold curves determined by different recording methods in a single fish species, …

Cognitive Phenotypes And The Evolution Of Animal Decisions, Tamra C. Mendelson, Courtney L. Fitzpatrick, Mark E. Hauber, Charles H. Pence, Rafael L. Rodríguez, Rebecca J. Safran, Caitlin A. Stern, Jeffrey R. Stevens

Faculty Publications

Despite the clear fitness consequences of animal decisions, the science of animal decision making in evolutionary biology is underdeveloped compared with decision science in human psychology. Specifically, the field lacks a conceptual framework that defines and describes the relevant components of a decision, leading to imprecise language and concepts. The ‘judgment and decision-making’ (JDM) framework in human psychology is a powerful tool for framing and understanding human decisions, and we apply it here to components of animal decisions, which we refer to as ‘cognitive phenotypes’. We distinguish multiple cognitive phenotypes in the context of a JDM framework and highlight empirical …

Concept, Conversion, Cultivation, And Consequence: The Four Cs Of Successful Collaboration, Sarah Simms, Hayley Johnson

Faculty Publications

In an effort to change the librarian-faculty collaboration culture at Nicholls State University, librarians actively sought grant opportunities to make resources available to the university which would facilitate collaboration. Nicholls was able to secure grant funding for a collaborative multidisciplinary research workshop series to promote undergraduate research. The objective of this grant funded opportunity was to place the library in a central role in the enhancement and expansion of the university’s research initiatives and partner with those disciplines that were traditionally self-contained. The technology and training made available to students through this initiative is important as it provides all students …

Theology, Race And Libraries, Anita Coleman

Faculty Publications

Recent theological research into the origin of race and the presence of structural racism in library systems of knowledge organization will be presented. Using examples from the open access Anti-racism Digital Library and International Anti-racism Thesaurus participants will learn how to overcome current limitations in library catalog subject headings in order to offer anti-racist and "just library service."

The Maternal Personhood Of Cattle And Plants At A Hindu Center In The United States, Daniel S. Capper

Faculty Publications

Religious experiences with sacred nonhuman natural beings considered to be “persons” remain only vaguely understood. This essay provides a measure of clarification by engendering a dialogue between psychoanalytic self psychology on one side and, on the other, religious experiences of cattle and Tulsi plants as holy mothers at a Hindu cattle sanctuary in the United States. Ethnographic data from the Hindu center uncover experiences of sacred maternal natural beings that are tensive, liminal, and colored with affective themes of nurturance, respect, and intimacy, much like psychoanalytic maternal selfobjects. Devotees protect cattle and ritually venerate plants because these actions facilitate a …

Groundhog Oracles And Their Forebears, Daniel S. Capper

Faculty Publications

Groundhog Day animal weather forecasting ceremonies continue to proliferate around the United States despite a lack of public confidence in the oracles. This essay probes religio-historical and original ethnographic perspectives to offer a psychological argument for why these ceremonies exist. Employing Paul Shepard’s notion of a felt loss of sacred, intimate relationships with nonhuman nature, as well as Peter Homans’ concept of the monument that enables mourning, this essay argues that groundhog oracles serve as monuments that allow humans experientially to attempt to heal lost sacred relationships with animals like weather forecasting bears, hedgehogs, and badgers