Digital Commons Network^™

Criminal Procedure Without Consent, Kate Weisburd

Faculty Scholarship

Scholars and advocates have long argued that a person’s consent to a warrantless police search is often so inherently coerced, uninformed, and shaped by race, class, gender, citizenship status, and disability that to call it a “choice” is fiction. This critique is not limited to police searches based on consent. Waiving rights and consenting to otherwise unconstitutional state action permeates criminal procedure. The definition of a seizure, the third-party doctrine, custodial confessions, plea bargains, and agreements to alternatives to incarceration (such as GPS ankle monitoring) all hinge on the idea of voluntary choices—choices that are often just as coerced and …

Incremental Innovation, George Horvath

Faculty Scholarship

Transformative innovations—the ones that use new technologies to disrupt the world—command our attention. But most new products are the result of a more mundane process of incremental iterative innovation, evolving through a long series of small modifications of existing technologies. Although both kinds of innovation can result in improved safety and utility, both can also create new dangers. We tend to be more aware of this in transformative innovations (as current worries over artificial intelligence show); by contrast, dangers created by incremental iterative innovation often go unrecognized, because the process itself is easy to overlook. Policymakers and regulators need to …

Governance & Guardrails: Emerging Technologies And Low-Wage Workers, Seema N. Patel

Faculty Scholarship

This Article examines an important, but undertheorized phenomenon at the intersection of technology and work: the rapidly increasing presence of artificial intelligence systems into low wage workplaces—and decidedly into the lives of low-wage workers themselves—and the resulting broader implications on work law and democracy. For decades, technology has enabled employers to increasingly exert control over workers; but for all their promise, emerging technologies like artificial intelligence also extend a new and potentially harmful level of concern for low-wage workers in particular. From algorithmic software that unilaterally determines workers’ schedules “on demand” and without notice; to constant and often surreptitious surveillance …

The Supreme Court And Public Opinion, Scott Dodson

Faculty Scholarship

Alexander Hamilton famously called the Supreme Court the “least dangerous branch” because it was reliant on Congress for funding and the President for enforcement. To manage its relationship with the political branches in a way that affords the Court both independence from them and the necessary assistance from them, the Court must cultivate the affection of the electorate. Several doctrinal tools facilitate that cultivation, and, historically, the Court has used those tools effectively to maintain relatively high public-approval rates. But over the last decade, those rates have fallen significantly to historic lows. This paper interrogates why that is. Tracing the …

Transcultural Courts, Scott Dodson

Faculty Scholarship

Although countries commonly divide their judicial systems along geographic and subject-matter divisions, the idea of creating specialized courts based on culture has not taken root. Instead, courts are generally transcultural. Functionally, the lack of culture-specific courts is surprising because cultural diversity within a population often creates legally significant distinctions. Focusing primarily on the U.S. judicial system, but incorporating attributes of other judicial systems where appropriate, this paper offers three explanations for why courts tend to eschew cultural specializations in favor of transculturality. It also hazards some opportunities for experimenting with cultural specializations in discrete areas of the law that most …

Secretive Sheriffs: Opacity And Variation In California's Jail Responses To Covid-19, Hadar Aviram, Aparna Komarla

Faculty Scholarship

Agnotology is the study of culturally induced ignorance or doubt, particularly the publication of inaccurate or misleading scientific data. In this Article, we draw attention to a disturbing site of agnotology: healthcare in California jails. Often obscured because of the attention to state prisons, jails were sites of opacity and misinformation, largely because of sheriffs’ refusal to collaborate with data collection efforts—both coordinated by the state and solicited through non-profits.

Building on the data collection effort of the Covid In-Custody Project and on public advocacy efforts of the #StopSanQuentinOutbreak coalition and its off-shoots, we show the chasm between data on …

Effect Of Polyacrylamide Gel Elasticity On Collagen Type Ii Fibril Assembly, Kathryn G. Wilcox, Stephanie Kramer, Surajit Chatterjee, Adam Linscott, Sneha Suresh, Lydia Kisley, Svetlana Morozova

Faculty Scholarship

Collagen type II fibrils provide structural integrity to the articular cartilage extracellular matrix. However, the conditions that control the fibril radial size scale, distribution, and formation inside of dense networks are not well understood. We have investigated how surrounding elastic networks affect fibril formation by observing the structure and dynamics of collagen type II in model polyacrylamide gels of varying moduli. Cryogenic transmission electron microscopy (cryo-TEM) is used to image the fibril structure and is verified qualitatively with optical microscopy of fluorescently-tagged collagen within the gels. Using fluorescence correlation spectroscopy super-resolution optical fluctuation imaging (fcsSOFI), the diffusion dynamics of the …

Assistive Technologies For Internet Navigation: A Review Of Screen Reader Solutions For The Blind And Visually Impaired, Juan Nino, Sherezada Ochoa, Jocelyne Kiss, Geoffreyjen Edwards, Ernesto Morales, James Hutson, Frédérique Poncet, Walter Wittich

Faculty Scholarship

The internet is a critical resource for individuals with visual impairments (VI), including those with low vision or blindness, enabling access to information and fostering independent participation in society. However, despite advancements in screen reader software, challenges persist in navigating complex and dynamic web content. This narrative review evaluates Assistive Technologies (AT), which enhance internet navigation for VI screen reader users, focusing on design strategies and usability outcomes. A systematic search across the ACM Digital Library, IEEE Xplore, JSTOR, and ScienceDirect identified 698 studies, of which 33 met the inclusion criteria, encompassing 502 participants. Key themes were extracted from bibliographic …

From Codex To Code: Pedagogical Transformations In The Age Of Technological Innovation, James Hutson, W. Travis Mcmaken, Kathi Vosevich

Faculty Scholarship

Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) is revolutionizing education, echoing historic shifts such as the emergence of the codex and the printing press. GAI automates complex tasks and personalizes learning to individual needs, enhancing interdisciplinary collaboration and bolstering critical thinking and ethical reasoning skills. Initiatives in new, innovative programming illustrate the benefits of embedding these generative technologies to foster cultural competence and innovative problem-solving. Research indicates that intelligent tools significantly enhance learner engagement and access to quality education, enriching learning environments. However, integrating these tools introduces challenges, including ethical dilemmas, academic integrity issues, and resource disparities. These challenges necessitate comprehensive policy development, …

Beyond Pathology: Inclusive Mentorship, Accommodations, And Policy Reforms For Autistic Women In The Medical Profession, Piper Hutson, James Hutson

Faculty Scholarship

This article addresses the unique challenges faced by autistic women in the medical profession, particularly in navigating traditional medical frameworks that often marginalize neurodiverse individuals. Drawing from a targeted literature review, this paper highlights the importance of adapting medical curricula, establishing mentorship programs, and reforming policies to foster inclusivity. Autistic women in medicine encounter barriers such as a lack of mentorship tailored to their needs, inadequate accommodations, and systemic bias rooted in the pathologization of autism. The article synthesizes current research to provide evidence-based recommendations that address these barriers. Specific examples of successful mentorship programs demonstrate the critical role of …

The Evolving Role Of Copyright Law In The Age Of Ai-Generated Works, James Hutson

Faculty Scholarship

Objective: to identify the prospects and directions of copyright law development associated with the increasing use of generative artificial intelligence.

Methods: the study is based on the formal-legal, comparative, historical methods, doctrinal analysis, legal forecasting and modeling.

Results:the article states that the emergence of generative artificial intelligence makes one rethink the processes occurring in the field of creative activity and the traditional copyright system, which becomes inadequate to modern realities. The author substantiates the necessity of legal reassessment of copyright and emphasizes the urgent need for updated means of copyright protection. Unlike previous digital tools, which expanded …

The Algorithm Of Fear: Unpacking Prejudice Against Ai And The Mistrust Of Technology, James Hutson, Daniel Plate

Faculty Scholarship

The mistrust of AI seen in the media, industry and education reflects deep-seated cultural anxieties, often comparable to societal prejudices like racism and sexism. Throughout history, literature and media have portrayed machines as antagonists, amplifying fears of technological obsolescence and identity loss. Despite the recent remarkable advancements in AI—particularly in creative and decision-making capacities—human resistance to its adoption persists, rooted in a combination of technophobia, algorithm aversion, and cultural narratives of dystopia. This review investigates the origins of this prejudice, focusing on the parallels between current attitudes toward AI and historical resistance to new technologies. Drawing on examples from popular …

From Concept To Creation: The Role Of Generative Artificial Intelligence In The New Age Of Digital Marketing, Andrew Smith, James Hutson

Faculty Scholarship

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been extensively used in digital marketing. Still, the recent advances in generative AI (GAI) have revolutionized social media marketing and content creation, lowering barriers that once restricted high-quality design to professionals well versed in expensive and complex software like Adobe Suite. GAI tools enable anyone, from students to marketers, to generate logos, branding, and multimedia content without extensive training. This shift has empowered more people to engage in creative expression, expanding the pool of ideas and creativity. However, the abundance of AI-generated content raises questions about the evolving definition of “art” and the emergence of a …

Video Game Development 3.0: Ai-Driven Collaborative Co-Creation, Jay Ratican, James Hutson

Faculty Scholarship

The evolution of game development has transitioned from manual coding (Software 1.0) to data-driven Artificial Intelligence (AI) (Software 2.0), and now to a more advanced stage—video game development 3.0. This phase is characterized by AI-driven processes leveraging large language models (LLMs), neural networks, and other AI techniques that autonomously generate code, content, and narratives. This paper explores the foundational technologies underpinning this paradigm shift, including customizable AI modules, dynamic asset creation, and intelligent non player characters (NPCs) that adapt to player interactions. It also highlights the integration of AI with emerging technologies like Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and …

Part Ii. Common Questions And Misconceptions About Creatine Supplementation: What Does The Scientific Evidence Really Show?, Jose Antonio, Ann F. Brown, Darren G. Candow, Philip D. Chilibeck, Stacey J. Ellery, Scott C. Forbes, Bruno Gualano, Andrew R. Jagim, Chad Kerksick, Richard B. Kreider, Sergej M. Ostojic, Eric S. Rawson, Michael D. Roberts, Hamilton Roschel, Abbie E. Smith-Ryan, Jeffrey R. Stout, Mark A. Tarnopolsky, Trisha A. Vandusseldorp, Darryn S. Willoughby, Tim N. Ziegenfuss

Faculty Scholarship

Creatine monohydrate supplementation (CrM) is a safe and effective intervention for improving certain aspects of sport, exercise performance, and health across the lifespan. Despite its evidence-based pedigree, several questions and misconceptions about CrM remain. To initially address some of these concerns, our group published a narrative review in 2021 discussing the scientific evidence as to whether CrM leads to water retention and fat accumulation, is a steroid, causes hair loss, dehydration or muscle cramping, adversely affects renal and liver function, and if CrM is safe and/or effective for children, adolescents, biological females, and older adults. As a follow-up, the purpose …

Not-So-Special Solicitude, Katherine Mims Crocker

Faculty Scholarship

In a high-profile case last term about state standing to sue in federal court, Justice Gorsuch deemed it “hard not to wonder why” the majority said “nothing about ‘special solicitude.’” The silence was indeed surprising, for in a landmark decision several years earlier, the Supreme Court had declared that states were “entitled to special solicitude”—presumably meaning some sort of preferential treatment—“in [the] standing analysis.” And since then, commentators had depicted the concept as permitting opportunistic states to wage ideological crusades in courts across the country, especially through administrative-law attacks on federal-government defendants.

But what if “special solicitude” is not so …

Make America Healthy: Reducing High Pharmaceutical Prices Without Reducing Innovation, Srividhya Ragavan

Faculty Scholarship

Cost of medication in the United States has historically remained one of the highest in the world. The conundrum that the United States has faced in balancing innovation with affordability of life-saving medications is palpable, especially when faced with the reality of patent monopolies conflicting with healthcare obligations. The result is an overflow of issues, which emphasize the need to delineate limits on innovation to balance pharmaceutical novelty with robust public health within the United States. This has increasingly shifted the focus of patent law into the realm of healthcare issues. Naturally, it leads to an inquiry about how best …

Transforming Fair Use, Glynn Lunney

Faculty Scholarship

In the United States, the fate of fair use, and by extension, copyright itself, hang in the balance. In recent years, courts have disagreed over fair use’s proper scope. On the one side are appellate decisions that interpret fair use broadly. While these decisions do not go so far as to suggest that every reuse is fair, they typically use the talismanic phrase “transformative use” and give it a generous and flexible interpretation. On the other side are appellate decisions that interpret fair use restrictively. While again they do not go so far as to suggest no reuse is fair, …

Intellectual Property, Innovation And Economic Inequality, Daniel Benoliel, Peter K. Yu, Francis Gurry, Keun Lee

Faculty Scholarship

While growing disparities in wealth and income are well-documented across the globe, the role of intellectual property rights is often overlooked. This volume brings together leading commentators from around the world to interrogate the interrelationship between intellectual property and economic inequality. Interdisciplinary and globally oriented by design, the book features economists, legal scholars, policy analysts, and other experts. Chapters address the impact of intellectual property rights on economic inequality, the effect of economic inequality on the protection and enforcement of these rights, and the potential use of innovation law and policy to help reduce economic inequality. The volume also tackles …

China, The Trips Waiver, And The Global Pandemic Response, Peter K. Yu

Faculty Scholarship

This chapter identifies three distinct reasons why China took a middle-of-the-road position in the debate on the COVID-19 TRIPS waiver at the WTO. It also recounts the country’s more assertive position in the run-up to the adoption of the Ministerial Decision on the waiver. Drawing eight lessons from the international debate on the waiver and the subsequent Ministerial Decision, the chapter offers insights into the future role China can or will play in future international policy debates at the intersection of intellectual property and public health, including during the next pandemic.

Reshaping Intellectual Property Scholarship From Within, Peter K. Yu

Faculty Scholarship

Written for the Symposium collecting papers from the Race + IP 23 Conference, this article explores intellectual property scholarship that has been either overlooked or marginalized. Because scholars of color are often outsiders looking in, the article identifies opportunities to reshape intellectual property scholarship from within. Even though the focus of this article was chosen with readers of this Symposium in mind, its insights will be relevant to all scholars.

This article begins by calling on scholars to develop a deeper appreciation of the intrinsic motivations of authors and inventors. It then discusses the oft-overlooked inequalities of creativity and innovation …

How The European Union Should Respond To Trump's Tariffs, Ignacio García Bercero, Petros C. Mavroidis, André Sapir

Faculty Scholarship

President-elect Trump has threatened to increase United States tariffs to 60 percent on imports from China and 10 percent to 20 percent on imports from other trading partners, including the European Union. In doing so the US would be ignoring its World Trade Organisation commitments and would also rollback the substantial liberalisation that has taken place during the past 80 years, with a potentially major negative impact on the world economy.

In response to this threat, the EU should pursue a three-pronged strategy.

First, the EU should engage bilaterally with the US to seek to avoid the imposition of tariffs. …

Enhancing Assessment And Feedback In Game Design Programs: Leveraging Generative Ai For Efficient And Meaningful Evaluation, James Hutson, Ben Fulcher, Jay Ratican

Faculty Scholarship

The integration of generative AI tools in game design education offers promising ways to streamline the grading, assessment, and feedback processes that are typically labor-intensive. In game design programs, faculty often deal with varied file formats, including 3D models, executable prototypes, videos, and complex game design documents. Traditional methods of assessment and feedback, primarily text-based, struggle to provide timely and actionable insights for students. Furthermore, only a small percentage of top students consistently review and apply feedback, leading to inefficiencies. This article explores how generative AI tools can augment these processes by automating aspects of grading, generating more personalized and …

Electrochemical Biosensing Of Cerium With A Tyrosine-Functionalized Ef-Hand Loop Peptide, Sogol Asaei, Geeta Verma, Nicholas S. Sinclair, Julie N. Renner

Faculty Scholarship

The significance of easily detecting rare earth elements (REEs) has increased due to the growing demand for REEs. Addressing this need, we present an innovative electrochemical biosensor, focusing on cerium as a model REE. This biosensor utilizes a modified EF-hand loop peptide sequence, incorporating cysteine for covalent attachment to a gold working electrode and tyrosine as an electrochemically active amino acid. The sensor was designed such that binding to cerium induces a conformational change in the peptide, affecting tyrosine's proximity to the electrode surface, modulating the current. A calibration curve was generated from cyclic voltammetry current peaks at ~0.55–0.65 V …

Water, Rosario Sanchez, Gabriel E. Eckstein

Faculty Scholarship

As the new US administration begins its term in January 2025, its ability to address complex, interconnected challenges will shape the future of US-Mexico relations. From economic cooperation and migration to shared security concerns, the new president’s leadership will be pivotal in navigating these critical issues and strengthening bilateral ties between Mexico and the United States. Effective collaboration will be vital to building a more prosperous and stable North America.

To support this effort, the Wilson Center’s Mexico Institute has prepared a comprehensive booklet as a practical roadmap for the incoming administration. This publication offers actionable recommendations across six priority …

Ai Regulation Has Its Own Alignment Problem: The Technical And Institutional Feasibility Of Disclosure, Registration, Licensing, And Auditing, Neel Guha, Christie M. Lawrence, Lindsey A. Gailmard, Kit T. Rodolfa, Faiz Surani, Rishi Bommasani, Inioluwa Deborah Raji, Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar, Colleen Honigsberg, Percy Liang, Daniel E. Ho

Faculty Scholarship

Calls for regulating artificial intelligence (“AI”) are widespread, but there remains little consensus on both the specific harms that regulation can and should address and the appropriate regulatory actions to take. Computer scientists propose technical solutions that may be infeasible or illegal; lawyers propose regulation that may be technically impossible; and commentators propose policies that may backfire. AI regulation, in that sense, has its own alignment problem, in which proposed interventions are often misaligned with societal values.This Article assesses the alignment and technical and institutional feasibility of four dominant proposals for AI regulation in the United States: disclosure, registration, licensing, …

The Right To Inequality: Conservative Politics And Precedent Collide, Jonathan Feingold

Faculty Scholarship

The “end of affirmative action” is the beginning of this story. In Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard (SFFA), the Supreme Court struck a near fatal blow to race-consciousness. Many institutions have since pivoted to “race neutral alternatives.” This is a natural turn. But one that faces immediate headwinds.

The same entities that demanded Harvard pursue racial diversity through colorblind means have sued public high schools for doing just that. These litigants assert a “right to inequality”—a theory that would pit the equal protection clause against equality itself. Even if normatively jarring, a right to inequality might seem a …

Just Fix The Damn Payment System!, Frances H. Miller

Faculty Scholarship

This piece takes as a given that we are stuck with our fragmented, inefficient, multi-payor health care system for at least the short run. It then analyzes the deficiencies of three payment mechanisms whereby regulators (including Congress) have invited private sector providers to help ameliorate perceived problems. The first concerns an inadequate supply of nursing home beds in the early ‘70s, the next focuses on Medicare Advantage as a supposedly superior cost containment alternative to traditional Medicare, and the final one involves the ‘devil’s bargain’ struck with the pharmaceutical industry to get prescription drug coverage added to Medicare. All three …

Colonizing By Contract, Emmanuel Hiram Arnaud

Faculty Scholarship

Since 1898, Puerto Rico has been a territory of the United States, meaning that Congress wields plenary power over the Island. Although scholars have highlighted the history and some modern manifestations of this power, conversations about how plenary power affects the territories have largely ignored constitutional criminal procedure.

This Article is the first to center the territory’s criminal legal system within the broader debate over the exercise of plenary power. In doing so, it fills significant gaps in the constitutional and criminal law literature on the territories by uncovering how the federal government’s plenary power affects local criminal adjudication. This …

Health Law And Democracy, Wendy K. Mariner

Faculty Scholarship

Current political divisions are destabilizing existing laws affecting the health field. Major changes in the field of health law have one thing in common: changes in who holds political power ‒ Congress and state legislatures, governors, presidents, judges, and agency officials. The laws that structure financial, economic, educational, and health care systems, environmental conditions, and civil society are primarily the product of elections that populate our political institutions. These structural determinants of health in turn create laws that influence how ‒ and how well ‒ we live and whether our society functions fairly under the rule of law. Thus, who …