Digital Commons Network^™

Municipal Abortion Bans: When Local Control Clashes With State Power, Laura D. Hermer

Faculty Scholarship

Anti-abortion activists are using different strategies in different states. Some focus on restricting zoning for abortion clinics. Others address the licensure of abortion providers. Some purport to create a cause of action for private individuals to sue neighbors and others in their municipality who get an abortion. Still, others seek to enforce the federal Comstock Act, alleging that it prohibits the mailing of abortifacients and preempts state abortion law to the contrary.

This Article evaluates the likely success of each of these strategies in two states in which they are currently being tried: Nebraska and New Mexico. Part I will …

Integrating Art And Ai: Evaluating The Educational Impact Of Ai Tools In Digital Art History Learning, James Hutson

Faculty Scholarship

This study delves into the burgeoning intersection of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and art history education, an area that has been relatively unexplored. The research focuses on how AI art generators impact learning outcomes in art history for both undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in Ancient Art courses, covering eras from ancient Mesopotamia to the fall of Rome. Utilizing a mixed-methods approach, the study analyzes AI-generated artworks, reflective essays, and survey responses to assess how these generative tools influence students’ comprehension, engagement, and creative interpretation of historical artworks. The study reveals that the use of AI tools in art history not …

Accommodating Trans Rights, Susan Hazeldean

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Equity For Intermediaries: The Resolution Of Financial Firms In Bankruptcy And Bank Resolution, Edward Janger

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Illegitimate Families, Susan Hazeldean

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Mass Accommodations: Signposts To A Hidden Jurisprudence, Shirley Lin

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Transgender Students And The First Amendment, Dara Purvis

Faculty Scholarship

Suppose a transgender child experiences teasing and harassment from their classmates, whose hostile reactions interrupt the school day. School administrators tell the transgender child that, in order to allow educational activities to continue, they must dress in more gender-neutral clothing, ideally cionsistent with the sex they were assigned at birth. The student's parents protest, arguing that their child's clothing is speech that expresses their gender identity. The school points to Tinker v. Des Moines, allowing suppression of student speech where it creates a material disruption, as well as recent legislation characterizing discussion of gender identity as lewd and obscene. …

Advancing Human Rights And The Rule Of Law In Haiti, Kate E. Bloch, Ariel Chéry, Marie Gerda Dorcy, Roxane Edmond Dimanche, Yvon Janvier, Maxo Mezilas, Benjamin Trouille

Faculty Scholarship

The rule of law in Haiti is precarious. The ESCDROJ law school clinic in the town of Jérémie champions indigent individuals whose human rights are under siege during their prolonged and unconstitutional pre-trial connement in prison. To our knowledge, it is the only operating in-house law school clinic in Ha1iti. Despite myriad obstacles, during its initial pre-pandemic period of op- eration in 2018-2019, the inaugural clinic team represented clients in 43 cases brought to trial and succeeded in garnering the release of 25 of those individuals. That is a trial release success rate of over 58%. Subsequently, however, the ad- …

Mass Surveillance As Racialized Control, Prithika Balakrishnan

Faculty Scholarship

This Article examines how the expanded use of pretrial GPS surveillance is radically changing the presumption of innocence by implicating punitive measures absent constitutional protections and amplifying the racial disparities in our criminal justice system. Largely viewed as a substitution for physical detention and therefore a less onerous intrusion on a defendant’s liberty, pretrial GPS surveillance erodes fundamental liberties under the guise of criminal justice regulation. These highly racialized but invisible repercussions include harms to physical and psychological health, freedom of movement, privacy, and future economic self-determination. I argue that, in light of these substantial harms, courts must examine how …

Psychic Income & Democratized Investing, Abraham J.B. Cable

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Mutiny For A Bounty, Emily Strauss, Joseph A. Grundfest

Faculty Scholarship

Experience teaches that attorneys may violate duties of confidentiality and trust to pursue personal gain. Multiple insider trading, embezzlement, and fraud prosecutions prove the point. The Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 establishes a bounty regime whereby certain whistleblowers are eligible for awards of 10%–30% of Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) enforcement recoveries exceeding $1 million. Since its inception, this program has paid at least 207 whistleblowers more than $1 billion. The Commission’s bounty program thus may be a meaningful inducement to breach privilege.

The SEC asserts that its whistleblower authority preempts state law and that it can accept attorney–client privileged information. …

Access To Care And Outcomes With The Affordable Care Act For Persons With Criminal Legal Involvement: A Scoping Review, James René Jolin, Benjamin A. Barsky, Carrie G. Wade, Meredith B. Rosenthal

Faculty Scholarship

IMPORTANCE By expanding health insurance to millions of people in the US, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) may have important health, economic, and social welfare implications for people with criminal legal involvement—a population with disproportionately high morbidity and mortality rates.

OBJECTIVE To scope the literature for studies assessing the association of any provision of the ACA with 5 types of outcomes, including insurance coverage rates, access to care, health outcomes, costs of care, and social welfare outcomes among people with criminal legal involvement.

EVIDENCE REVIEW The literature search included results from PubMed, CINAHL Complete, APA Psycinfo, Embase, …

The Illusion Of Progress: Rethinking Human Rights And The Legal Regulation Of Mobility, Moria Paz

Faculty Scholarship

The development of human rights law is generally presented as a story of progress. This progress is an evolution from an “old” legal regime that did not recognize individual rights to a “new” law (starting with the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)) that anointed all individuals as possessors of internationally recognized rights against their states. Further, the definition of these rights has supposedly expanded over time, adding elements of complementary protection and extraterritorial application.

However, at least as it concerns border-crossing, this standard genealogy is wrong. The story of human rights is, in fact, one of retreat—a contraction …

Natural Language Processing And Neurosymbolic Ai: The Role Of Neural Networks With Knowledge-Guided Symbolic Approaches, Emily Barnes, James Hutson

Faculty Scholarship

Neurosymbolic AI (NeSy AI) represents a groundbreaking approach in the realm of Natural Language Processing (NLP), merging the pattern recognition of neural networks with the structured reasoning of symbolic AI to address the complexities of human language. This study investigates the effectiveness of neurosymbolic AI in providing nuanced understanding and contextually relevant responses, driven by the need to overcome the limitations of existing models in handling complex linguistic tasks and abstract reasoning. Employing a hybrid methodology that combines multimodal contextual modeling with rule-governed inferences and memory activations, the research delves into specific applications like Named Entity Recognition (NER), where architectures …

Role Of Wave3 As An Actin Binding Protein In The Pathology Of Triple Negative Breast Cancer, Lamyae El Khalki, Khalid Sossey-Alaoui

Faculty Scholarship

Breast cancer, a prevalent global health concern, has sparked extensive research efforts, particularly focusing on triple negative breast cancer (TNBC), a subtype lacking estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor, and epidermal growth factor receptor. TNBC's aggressive nature and resistance to hormone-based therapies heightens the risk of tumor progression and recurrence. Actin-binding proteins, specifically WAVE3 from the Wiskott–Aldrich syndrome protein (WASP) family, have emerged as major drivers in understanding TNBC biology. This review delves into the intricate molecular makeup of TNBC, shedding light on actin's fundamental role in cellular processes. Actin, a structural element in the cytoskeleton, regulates various cellular pathways essential …

Temporary Protection For Ukrainians In The European Union: Why Now And When Again, Maryellen Fullerton

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Racing And Erasing Parental Rights, Cynthia Godsoe

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Toward Best Practices For Trade-Security Measures, Harlan G. Cohen

Faculty Scholarship

The global economy is increasingly being weaponized. Citing security concerns from traditional defence to economic competitiveness, health emergency, and climate crisis, states are turning to sanctions, tariffs, export controls, investment screening, and subsidies. But while economic statecraft is becoming common, rules remain scarce. Questions about notice, duration, proportionality, harm minimization, compensation, retaliation, and/or rebalancing lack clear answers and seem almost theoretical. Once, we might have hoped the World Trade Organization (WTO) would play a role in developing such rules. But in the absence of an Appellate Body and in the face of state rejections of review, WTO’s deliberative processes have …

Fights Over Continuity - In Life And Law, Jamison E. Colburn

Faculty Scholarship

What is the whole: a river or that river and its tributaries? There is no “natural” answer to the question, only so many answers as there are reasons for asking. Lately, the Clean Water Act has been the captive of such diversions in our Supreme Court’s agenda. Changing it will not free it from that captivity. For whatever reforms we choose could still provide boundless opportunities for frustration in questions like the above. If the Court is as eager to cause that frustration as it has appeared lately, maybe we should help the Court to its fight with this iconic …

Defamation, Presumed Damages, And Reputational Injury: A Legal And Philosophical Inquiry, Benjamin C. Zipursky

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Blue Carbon Law, Adam D. Orford

Faculty Scholarship

This Article explores the emerging law of blue carbon, defined as rules governing human interventions into Earth’s marine carbon cycles. Blue carbon law is of growing importance today as pressure mounts to incorporate coastal conservation and restoration activities into market-based carbon sequestration schemes, and as the planet’s deep oceans are evaluated for their carbon sequestration potential. The Article conceptualizes two broad trends in blue carbon law: the international law of carbon credit markets creating incentives to commodify and monetize blue carbon resources; and the responsive integration of commodification concepts into existing laws that already manage and influence blue carbon systems, …

Voice, Prevention, Remedy: Key Elements In A Global Supply Chain Convention, James J. Brudney

Faculty Scholarship

In a global supply chain (GSC) setting, workers’ voice may be understood as the extent to which employees and others toiling in the supply chain are able to participate—individually and/or collectively—in decisions affecting their labor conditions and rights. Policy instruments may strengthen this voice insofar as they provide mechanisms enabling workers to identify and actualize their labor rights within the GSC. This Article initially situates the role of workers’ voice in GSCs by reference to the writings of political economist Albert O. Hirschman. In his classic book, Exit Voice, and Loyalty, and related articles, Hirschman focused on mechanisms for addressing …

The Global Tax Deal And The New International Economic Governance, Rebecca Kysar

Faculty Scholarship

The ethos of economic integration and trade liberation no longer reigns supreme. Instead of multilateral trade agreements, nations are turning towards protectionism and unilateralism. Yet in late 2021, nearly 140 countries agreed to a new global tax deal that is aimed at coordinating their tax systems to curtail tax competition and corporation profit shifting to tax havens, as well as constructing a new allocation of taxing rights among nations. Although multilateral trade agreements now seem out of reach, tax multilateralism is ascendant. This is surprising given the deep tradition of national control over tax policy. It also perplexing since international …

A Matter Of Facts: The Evolution Of Copyright’S Fact-Exclusion And Its Implications For Disinformation And Democracy, Jessica Silbey

Faculty Scholarship

The Article begins with a puzzle: the curious absence of an express fact-exclusion from copyright protection in both the Copyright Act and its legislative history despite it being a well-founded legal principle. It traces arguments in the foundational Supreme Court case (Feist Publications v. Rural Telephone Service) and in the Copyright Act’s legislative history to discern a basis for the fact-exclusion. That research trail produces a legal genealogy of the fact-exclusion based in early copyright common law anchored by canonical cases, Baker v. Selden, Burrow-Giles v. Sarony, and Wheaton v. Peters. Surprisingly, none of them …

Two Ai Truths And A Lie, Woodrow Hartzog

Faculty Scholarship

Industry will take everything it can in developing Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems. We will get used to it. This will be done for our benefit. Two of these things are true and one of them is a lie. It is critical that lawmakers identify them correctly. In this Essay, I argue that no matter how AI systems develop, if lawmakers do not address the dynamics of dangerous extraction, harmful normalization, and adversarial self-dealing, then AI systems will likely be used to do more harm than good.

Given these inevitabilities, lawmakers will need to change their usual approach to regulating technology. …

Ai & Antitrust: The Algorithm Made Me Do It, Robin Feldman, Caroline Yuen

Faculty Scholarship

As the dawn of artificial intelligence (“AI”) rises rapidly, competition authorities should contemplate the potential for hazy days ahead. Undoubtedly, AI’s already ubiquitous presence offers exciting possibilities, from enhancing efficiency, to leveling the playing field for non-native speakers,to enabling scientific discovery.Despite these breathtaking advancements, however, recent data from the Pew Research Center reveal that only 15% of adults surveyed were “more excited than concerned about the increasing use of AI in daily life,” with 46% expressing “an equal mix of concern and excitement.”

Policymakers also manifest concerns about AI, exemplified by the extent to which government actors are racing to …

Afrofuturism And The Law: A Manifesto, I. Bennett Capers

Faculty Scholarship

Afrofuturism seems to be everywhere these days. In music, film, dance, literature. And in this special symposium issue of the Georgetown Law Journal, “Afrofuturism and the Law.” This prompts a foundational question. What is “Afrofuturism and the Law”? More specifically, as a practice, as a discipline, and a legal movement, what should Afrofuturism and the Law be. Indeed, given Afrofuturism’s seeming staying power, and its incursion into law, is it time for a manifesto to set parameters? Hence, this proposed manifesto. To be sure, I am troubled by the word manifesto, especially given its connection to the word manifest, which …

Can Crt Save Dei?: Workplace Diversity, Equity & Inclusion In The Shadow Of Anti-Affirmative Action, Tanya K. Hernandez

Faculty Scholarship

Just four years after the nation’s summer of 2020 protests—sparked by the murder of George Floyd— culminated in a racial reckoning in which many organizations across the country instituted racial equity measures and policies, legislators across the nation are enacting anti-Critical Race Theory (CRT) bans in a seeming backlash to this advocacy for racial justice. The bans simultaneously mischaracterize CRT as anti-White discrimination while strategically conflating it with workplace diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. Further inflaming the racially hostile public discourse is the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard (2023), which greatly narrows …

Consent And Disagreement, Aditi Bagchi

Faculty Scholarship

Contracts purport to settle rights and obligations between parties. The fact that parties have consented to a given set of terms seems to hold the promise of preempting conflict about those terms after the fact. But contract gives rise to disputes about consent itself. Many disputes about implied conditions, for example, are best understood as disagreements about the scope of consent.

This article identifies several moral ambiguities in the concept of concept. We not only disagree about the analytic merits of competing conceptions among ourselves but, even as individuals, we tend not to endorse and consistently apply a single version …

Painting A Clearer Picture: Introducing New Federal Rule Of Evidence 107 Regulating Illustrative Aids, Daniel J. Capra, Liesa L. Richter

Faculty Scholarship

They say a picture is worth a thousand words—and charts, drawings, diagrams, computer animations, and even tangible items are utilized at trial in virtually every case tried in the federal and state court systems. Litigants have come to depend heavily upon such aids to engage visual learners in the jury box and to present a compelling narrative. And the creative use of trial aids has only increased with the rapid technological advancements of recent decades. The ubiquity of such aids notwithstanding, there is no written standard governing their use, no agreed-upon lexicon for describing them, and no set of uniform …