Digital Commons Network^™

Intimate Partner Violence And Covid-19 In Rural, Remote, And Northern Canada: Relationship, Vulnerability And Risk, Pertice Pertice Moffitt, Wendy Aujla, Crystal J. Giesbrecht, Isabel Grant, Anna-Lee Straatman

All Faculty Publications

In rural, remote, and northern parts of Canada, the pre-existing vulnerability and risk for intimate partner violence has been exacerbated by COVID-19. The purpose of this commentary is to identify the unique impact of COVID-19 on intimate partner violence both in terms of the bearing on those experiencing abuse and on the service sector in rural, remote and northern communities where the rates of intimate partner violence and intimate partner femicide pre-pandemic are higher than in larger cities. The recommendations offered in this paper include enhanced safety planning, alternate housing for victims fleeing violence, and suggestions for service providers. We …

Charter Rights, State Expertise: Testing State Claims To Expert Knowledge, Emma Cunliffe

All Faculty Publications

This article considers the individual and collective significance of two decisions issued by the Supreme Court of Canada in 2018: Ewert v. Canada and R. v. Gubbins.

Environmental Law, Jocelyn Stacey

All Faculty Publications

In commemoration of their 50th anniversary, this chapter examines the Federal Courts’ role in shaping environmental law in Canada. The chapter uses well-known environmental principles – the precautionary principle, sustainable development and access to (environmental) justice – as focal points for examining environmental law as well as the legal culture of the Federal Courts. The chapter identifies four distinct interpretive roles that the Federal Courts have ascribed to the precautionary principle and it argues that three of these roles have the potential to generate more coherent and transparent doctrine that upholds the rule of law in the environmental context. In …

The Deliberative Dimensions Of Modern Environmental Assessment Law, Jocelyn Stacey

All Faculty Publications

Environmental assessment (EA) is a cornerstone of environmental law. It provides a legal framework for public decision making about major development projects with implications for environmental protection and the rights and title of Indigenous peoples. Despite significant literature supporting deliberation as the preferred mode of engagement with those affected by EA decisions, the specific legal demands of EA legislation remain undeveloped. This article suggests a legal foundation for deliberative environmental assessment. It argues that modern environmental assessment can be understood through three public law frames: procedural fairness, public inquiry, and framework for the duty to consult and accommodate. It further …

Does 'No, Not Without A Condom' Mean 'Yes, Even Without A Condom'?: The Fallout From R V Hutchinson, Lise Gotell, Isabel Grant

All Faculty Publications

In R v Kirkpatrick, the Court of Appeal for British Columbia held that consent to sexual activity cannot be established where a man proceeds with unprotected vaginal intercourse when his sexual partner has insisted on a condom. While this finding should be uncontroversial, it is in fact contrary to the Supreme Court of Canada ruling in R v Hutchinson. In this comment we argue that the approach taken in Kirkpatrick is correct and consistent with the landmark decision in R v Ewanchuk. We urge the Supreme Court of Canada to reconsider its majority judgment in Hutchinson in order to fully …

Responsible Scholarship In A Crisis: A Plea For Fairness In Academic Discourse On The Carbon Pricing References, Stepan Wood, Meinhard Doelle, Dayna Nadine Scott

All Faculty Publications

The Canadian federal government’s carbon pricing legislation has generated substantial public and academic debate. In this paper we argue that academic debate should adhere to standards for responsible conduct of research during crises such as the current climate emergency, and avoid the nastiness and distortion that infect populist political rhetoric and social media. We discuss the norms of responsible scholarship that apply to Canadian legal academics, with a focus on standards that demand scrupulous fairness to other scholars and to the materials one is analyzing. We argue that a recent article by Professor Dwight Newman on the Saskatchewan and Ontario …

Building The Aboriginal Conference Settlement Suite: Hope And Realism In Law As A Tool For Social Change, Toby S. Goldbach

All Faculty Publications

In 2014, the provincial government unveiled a new courthouse in Thunder Bay, Ontario, featuring a conference area designed to emulate an Anishinaabe roundhouse. The “Aboriginal Conference Settlement Suite” epitomizes efforts to support Indigenous justice within the criminal justice system. However, despite similar efforts in the past, the circumstances of Indigenous peoples in Canada have not improved. This ongoing commitment to legal solutions is emblematic of mainstream views of law as a problem-solving instrument. Notwithstanding awareness of its failings, law reformers remain dedicated to using law as a tool for social change. Employing a case study method focusing on the new …

First Comes Marriage, Then Comes Baby, Then Comes What Exactly?, Erez Aloni

All Faculty Publications

Taiwan’s legalization of same-sex marriage is an event of international importance concerning the rights of LGBTQ+ individuals and partners; further, it constitutes an opportunity to examine the state of LGBTQ+ equality in Taiwan and elsewhere. To this end, through theoretical and comparative lenses, this Article asks what equality for LGBTQ+ means and what comes after marriage. It offers perspectives on the past, present, and future of the intersection of same-sex marriage and equality. Looking at the path to same-sex marriage in Taiwan, the Article argues that the Taiwanese Constitutional Court’s ruling legalizing same-sex marriage maintained a line between domesticated liberty …

How Well-Targeted Are Payroll Tax Cuts As A Response To Covid-19? Evidence From China, Wei Cui, Jeffrey Hicks, Max Norton

All Faculty Publications

Numerous countries cut payroll taxes in response to economic downturns caused by COVID-19. This includes China, which completely exempted most firms from making social insurance (SI) contributions, resulting in an average tax cut of 21 percentage points on formal labor costs and approximately 20% of total tax remittances made by firms. We use novel data on 900,000 firms in one Chinese province to document new facts about the structure of SI in China and evaluate payroll tax cuts as a COVID-19 relief measure. We calculate that labor informality causes 54% of tax-registered firms---representing 24% of aggregate economic activity---to receive no …

What Is Unilateralism In International Taxation?, Wei Cui

All Faculty Publications

The OECD recently emerged as the site of unprecedented, multilateral, and seemingly high-stakes negotiations about the future of international business income taxation. Judging by the political resources deployed in these negotiations, international tax has entered unchartered territory. Professor Ruth Mason offers a timely and balanced portrayal of the OECD process so far. But explanations of this process remain highly contestable. On the one hand, international institutions that address externalities from uncoordinated actions and produce mutual benefits for participating nations can be highly stable. On the other hand, the OECD has struggled, whether in its BEPS (Base Erosion and Profit Shifting) …

Constitutional Scholars As Constitutional Actors, Liora Lazarus

All Faculty Publications

Few constitutional scholars would dispute that Carl Schmitt played a legitimating role in the downfall of the Weimar Republic, or that Albert Venn Dicey has defined the UK and other commonwealth constitutions. Why then is there no general conception of constitutional scholars as constitutional actors? It is now well established that ‘to understand how our Constitution and laws are practised, it is necessary to study and understand many more institutions in the system than simply the Judiciary’ While the focus has broadened to include a range of constitutional office holders and institutions, little has been said about the role and …

The Complex Legacy Of R. V. Cuerrier: Hiv Nondisclosure Prosecutions And Their Impact On Sexual Assault Law, Isabel Grant

All Faculty Publications

This article examines the impact of the Supreme Court of Canada decision in R. v. Cuerrier from two vantage points. First, the article examines the impact of the decision on HIV nondisclosure prosecutions. Second, it examines the damage done by Cuerrier to sexual assault law outside of the HIV context. The article argues that Cuerrier has both overcriminalized people living with HIV and distorted the law of sexual assault. Through Cuerrier, and subsequent cases, the Supreme Court of Canada has unduly limited the concept of consent and its voluntariness requirement, and distorted the concept of fraud such that deceptions around …

Association Of Progressive Supranuclear Palsy Rating Scale With Progressive Supranuclear Palsy Quality Of Life Scale, Alexander Pantelyat, Leonora Higginbotham, Liana Rosenthal, Diane Lanham, Vanessa Nesspor, Mina Alsalihi, Jee Bang, Jiangxia Wang, Marilyn Albert

Student Publications

Introduction: There is growing interest in using patient-reported outcomes as end points in clinical trials, such as the progressive supranuclear palsy quality of life (PSP-QoL) scale. However, this tool has not been widely validated and its correlation with validated motor scales has not been explored. To evaluate the potential utility of using PSP-QoL as an outcome, it is important to examine its relationship with a standard scale used to evaluate neurologic parameters, such as the PSP Rating Scale.

Methods: PSP-QoL and PSP Rating Scale scores were gathered from 60 clinically diagnosed PSP patients, including patients with Richardson syndrome PSP (PSP-RS, …

Individual Preferences In Policy Analysis: A Normative Framework, Gabriel Weil

Scholarly Works

Measures of individual preferences are a key input in cost-benefit analysis. However, behavioral science has raised questions about the rationality of these preferences. The Nudge thesis relies on that scientific research to prescribe interventions to influence individual choices. However, the more modest step of limiting reliance on these preferences in evaluating non-paternalistic government policies has not been taken up. We lack a consistent theory of when public policy should defer to these preferences, with legal and policy advocates adopting ad hoc result-oriented approaches. I argue that policymakers should be prepared to override individual preferences in cases where their only plausible …

The Categorical Imperative As A Decarceral Agenda, Jessica M. Eaglin

Articles by Maurer Faculty

In his forthcoming book, The Insidious Momentum of Mass Incarceration, Frank Zimring proposes two alternative methods to decarcerate: states can adopt a categorical imperative to reduce prison populations or states can reform the governance of sentencing. This symposium Essay focuses on the first of these options, as proposed in his tentative Chapter Six, wherein Zimring calls for categorically removing drug-addicted offenders from eligibility for prison sanctions and expanding use of jails for categories of offenses or offenders.

These methods, I suggest, exist in tension with numerous popular sentencing reforms being implemented in the states right now. Popular reforms, including the …

Consumer Bankruptcy Should Be Increasingly Irrelevant - Why Isn't It?, Pamela Foohey

Articles by Maurer Faculty

There are important reasons why consumer bankruptcy remains relevant, even if consumers’ and bankruptcy’s interests have diverged. Some of these reasons suggest that it is more relevant than ever. The remainder of this response overviews the place consumer bankruptcy presently occupies in the United States. In doing so, I detail why consumer bankruptcy remains relevant in the face of a socio-economic structure and of laws that suggest that bankruptcy may not be a particularly useful place for struggling Americans to turn to for help. The response ends by calling for a bolder vision for consumer bankruptcy in light of the …

Mindsets In Legal Education, Victor D. Quintanilla, Sam Erman

Articles by Maurer Faculty

If you teach 1Ls, you may share the following concern. At the start of each year, we meet enthusiastic and successful students who are passionate about law. They arrive on campus invested in learning, ready to work hard, and eager to participate in class. But trouble brews soon thereafter. Students worry whether they have what it takes to do well, whether they will fit in, and whether they belong in law school. Answering questions in class, many sense (rightly or wrongly) that their professors and peers think that they aren’t smart and that they will not do well. When they …

Changed Science Writs And State Habeas Relief, Valena Beety

Articles by Maurer Faculty

For decades now, the 1996 federal Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA) has limited the scope and influence of federal courts in post-conviction case review, forcing convicted individuals to rely instead on state habeas proceedings for conviction relief. Due in large part to the 2009 National Academy of Sciences Report, petitions for conviction relief increasingly include challenges to the government’s scientific evidence at trial. These petitions analyze that evidence by comparing the trial evidence to the advancement of scientific findings and scientific knowledge in the years since the trial. State habeas petitions thus provide an avenue for relief from …

Pre-Columbian Rock Mulching As A Strategy For Modern Agave Cultivation In Arid Marginal Lands, Hector Ortiz-Cano, Jose Antonio Hernandez-Herrera, Neil C. Hansen, Steven L. Petersen, Michael T. Searcy, Ricardo Mata-Gonzalez, Teodoro Cervantes-Mendivil, Antonio Villanueva-Morales, Pil Man Park, J. Ryan Stewart

Faculty Publications

Cultivation of C3 and C4 crops in semi-arid regions will be severely constrained as global temperatures rise. Consequently, alternative crops need to be sought out that adapt well to heat and drought and are productive despite limited access to water. Traits, such as crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM), enable economically important species such as those in the Agave genus adapt to drought and high temperatures. The succulence and high efficiency of agaves, which enables them to produce biomass with little water, underscores their feasibility as an alternative crop for semi-arid regions, such as the Sonoran Desert in the southwestern U.S. In …

Probation And Monetary Sanctions In Georgia: Evidence From A Multi-Method Study, Sarah Shannon

Georgia Law Review

Georgia leads the nation in probation supervision, which has been the subject of recent legislative reforms. Probation supervision is the primary mechanism for monitoring and collecting legal financial obligations (LFOs) from people sentenced in Georgia courts. This Article analyzes how monetary sanctions and probation supervision intersect in Georgia using quantitative data from the Department of Community Supervision as well as interviews with probationers and probation officers gathered as part of the Multi-State Study of Monetary Sanctions between 2015 and 2018. Several key findings emerge: (1) there is substantial variation between judicial districts in the amount of fines and fees ordered …

Boots And Bail On The Ground: Assessing The Implementation Of Misdemeanor Bail Reforms In Georgia, Andrea Woods, Sandra G. Mayson, Lauren Sudeall, Guthrie Armstrong, Anthony Potts

Georgia Law Review

This Article presents a mixed-methods study of misdemeanor bail practice across Georgia in the wake of reform. We observed bail hearings and interviewed system actors in a representative sample of fifty-five counties to assess the extent to which pretrial practice conforms to legal standards clarified in Senate Bill 407 and Walker v. Calhoun. We also analyzed jail population data published by county jails and by the Georgia Department of Community Affairs. We found that a handful of counties have made promising headway in adhering to law and best practices, but that the majority have some distance to go. Most counties …

Juvenile Justice Reform In Georgia: A Collective Decisionmaking Approach To De-Politicize Crime And Punishment, The Honorable Steven Teske

Georgia Law Review

Since the creation of the first juvenile court in 1899, juvenile courts have undergone periods of transition in response to legislative enactments prompted by societal events or in response to legal challenges involving due process rights of children. This Article examines politics and the extent in which it played a role in shaping juvenile justice and crime policies and its impact on children and public safety. In this critical review of each period of transition, this Article concludes that the lack of success among juvenile justice agencies, including the courts, is predominately the result of the politicizing of crime and …

An Empirical Evaluation Of Proposed Civil Rules For Multidistrict Litigation, Margaret S. Williams, Jason A. Cantone

Georgia Law Review

The Civil Rules Committee of the Judicial Conference of the
United States recently began considering the need for specific
rules regarding multidistrict litigation (MDL) proceedings. The
possibility of creating rules specifically for MDL originates with
recently proposed legislation prompted by groups typically tied
to the defense bar. One area the Civil Rules Committee is
considering concerns the use of fact sheets in MDL proceedings.
These party-negotiated questionnaires—directed at both
parties to the case—inform judges and attorneys about the
scope of the proceeding. Understanding whether these case
management tools are currently being used and how they work
with other tools, such …

Puppies, Puppies, Puppies: Why Georgia Should “Adopt” A Progressive Puppy Lemon Law And Engage In Much-Needed Statutory Reform, Jonathan T. Tortorici

Georgia Law Review

The Georgia Animal Protection Act—a set of animal
protection laws that has remained unchanged for nearly two
decades—was passed to promote animal welfare across the
state. Although the Act was progressive at its inception, its
failure to curb the atrocious conditions created by puppy mills
has become increasingly apparent, resulting in serious
consequences for both consumers and dogs. Georgia must
amend its animal protection laws to shift the costs of puppy
mills to where they belong: on pet sellers. Among other
innovative solutions to this problem, many states have enacted
“puppy lemon laws” that generally provide pet purchasers with
the …

Fbxw7-Mediated Stability Regulation Of Signal Transducer And Activator Of Transcription 2 In Melanoma Formation, Cheol-Jung Lee, Hyun-Jung An, Seung-Min Kim, Sun-Mi Yoo, Juhee Park, Ga-Eun Lee, Woo-Young Kim, Dae Joon Kim, Han Chang Kang, Joo Young Lee

School of Medicine Publications

In this study, we provide critical evidence that STAT2 stability regulation plays an essential role in melanoma cell proliferation and colony growth. We found that the interaction of FBXW7 and STAT2 induced STAT2 destabilization via a ubiquitination-mediated proteasomal degradation pathway. Notably, GSK3β-mediated STAT2 phosphorylation facilitated STAT2–FBXW7 interactions via the DNA binding domain of STAT2 and domains 1, 2, 6, and 7 of FBXW7 WD40. Importantly, the inverse correlation between protein levels of STAT2 and FBXW7 were observed not only in human melanoma cells but also in a human skin cancer tissue array. The relationship between protein levels of STAT2 and …

Association Between Exposure To Air Pollution And Total Gray Matter And Total White Matter Volumes In Adults: A Cross-Sectional Study, Bruce L. Brown, Lance D. Erickson, Shawn D. Gale, Jacqueline E. Anderson, Dawson W. Hedges

Faculty Publications

Total brain gray-matter and white-matter volumes can be indicators of overall brain health. Among the factors associated with gray-matter and white-matter volumes is exposure to air pollution. Using data from the UK Biobank, we sought to determine associations between several components of air pollution—PM2.5, PM2.5–10, PM10, nitrogen dioxide, and nitrogen oxides—and total gray-matter and total white-matter volumes in multivariable regression models in a large sample of adults. We found significant inverse associations between PM2.5 concentration and total white-matter volume and between PM2.5, PM2.5–10, PM10, nitrogen dioxide, and nitrogen oxide concentrations and total gray-matter volume in models adjusted for age, sex, …

Association Between Exposure To Air Pollution And Thalamus Volume In Adults: A Crosssectional Study, Bruce L. Brown, Dawson W. Hedges, Lance D. Erickson, Shawn D. Gale, Jacqueline E. Anderson

Faculty Publications

Background: Air pollution has been associated with cognitive function and brain volume. While most previous research has examined the association between air pollution and brain volume in cortical structures or total brain volume, less research has investigated associations between exposure to air pollution and subcortical structures, including the thalamus. Further, the few available previous studies investigating associations between air pollution and thalamic volume have shown mixed results.

Methods: In this study, we evaluated the association between PM2.5, PM2.5–10, PM10, nitrogen dioxide, and nitrogen oxides and volume of the thalamus in adults using the UK Biobank resource, a large community-based sample, …

Prevalence Of Depressive Symptoms In The Elderly Population Diagnosed With Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus, Wendy C. Birmingham, Beata Dziedzic, Zofia Sienkiewicz, Anna Le ´Nczuk-Gruba, Ewa Kobos, Wieslaw Fidecki, Mariusz Wysokiski

Faculty Publications

Introduction: A sharp rise in the population of elderly people, who are more prone to somatic and mental diseases, combined with the high prevalence of type 2 diabetes mellitus and diabetes-associated complications in this age group, have an impact on the prevalence of depressive symptoms. Aim of the work: The work of the study was the evaluation of the prevalence of depressive symptoms in the elderly population diagnosed with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Materials and methods: The pilot study was conducted in 2019 among 200 people diagnosed with type 2 diabetes mellitus, aged 65 years and above, receiving treatment in …

Cognitive Impairment No Dementia And Associations With Health Literacy, Self-Management Skills, And Functional Health Status, Derin J. Cobia, Rebecca M. Lovett, Laura M. Curtis, Stephen D. Persell, James W. Griffith, Alex Federman, Michael S. Wolf

Faculty Publications

Objectives: To determine the prevalence of cognitive impairment no dementia (CIND) among a diverse, community-based population, and establish associations between CIND and health literacy, chronic disease self-management and functional health status.

Methods: 863 primary care adults without dementia aged 55–74. Adjusted logistic and linear regressions were used to assess associations between CIND (None, Mild, Moderate/Severe) and outcomes.

Results: 36% participants exhibited CIND. It was strongly associated with limited health literacy (Newest Vital Signs: Mild [OR 3.25; 95% CI 1.93, 5.49], Moderate/Severe [OR 6.45; 95% CI 3.16, 13.2]; Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults: Mild [OR 3.46; 95% CI 2.08, …

Injunction Junction, What’S Your Function? Crafting Permanent Injunctions To Be Appropriate Remedies In Defamation Cases, James Netter

Georgia Law Review

When someone is liable for defamation, a court will
almost always levy monetary penalties against the
defamer. A rarely used penalty for defamation is the
imposition of a permanent injunction on the defaming
party that would prevent them from repeating their
defamatory content. Many courts see permanent
injunctions as an unconstitutional prior restraint on a
person’s right to speak, refusing to allow the
condemnation of a person’s speech before they have
spoken it. However, the common justifications for
denying permanent injunctions are weaker upon
reevaluation, particularly in the Internet age, and some
courts and legal scholars recognize that an injunction …