Digital Commons Network^™

The Solicitor General, Consistency, And Credibility, Margaret H. Lemos, Deborah A. Widiss

Faculty Scholarship

This Article offers the first comprehensive look at cases in which the Solicitor General (SG) rejects a legal argument offered on behalf of the United States in prior litigation. Such reversals have received considerable attention in recent years, as shifts in presidential administrations have produced multiple high-profile “flip-flops”—as the Justices sometimes call them—by the SG. Even those observers who defend the SG, including veterans of the office, caution that inconsistency in legal argument poses a threat to the SG’s credibility with the Court. Our goal is to better understand the circumstances that lead the SG to change its position on …

Collective Management Of Copyrights And Human Rights In An Age Of Technological Automation, Laurence R. Helfer, Giulia Priora

Faculty Scholarship

Collective management organizations (CMOs) across the world have remained key to the exercise and enforcement of copyrights and neighbouring rights of individual creators notwithstanding the rapid development of digital technologies and their decentralizing potential. This chapter provides an up-to-date legal analysis on the role and activities carried out by CMOs vis-à-vis the protection of creators’ rights as international human rights. By scrutinizing key treaty provisions and interpretative documents, the analysis reveals how a human rights framework supports numerous functions performed by CMOs. However, significant conflicts may arise from certain practices and policies of CMOs concerning, for example, mandatory membership, promotion …

Racial Disparities In Crime-Based Removal Proceedings, Emily Ryo, Ian Peacock, Weston Ley, Christopher Levesque

Faculty Scholarship

Whether and to what extent racial minorities experience harsher treatment or face worse outcomes in court are questions of fundamental importance for any justice system. Questions of racial inequality are especially salient in the context of removal proceedings that are triggered by immigrants’ criminal history. Many individuals in crime-based removal proceedings are immigrants of color who face a host of legal disadvantages that are tantamount to double penalties for the same crime for which they have already been punished through the criminal justice system. This Article offers, for the first time, systematic empirical analyses of crime-based removal proceedings decided between …

Civilian Harm And Military Legitimacy: Evidence From The Battle Of Mosul, Benjamin Krick, Jonathan Petkun, Mara R. Revkin

Faculty Scholarship

The legitimacy of armed forces in the eyes of civilians is increasingly recognized as crucial not only for battlefield effectiveness but also for conflict resolution and peace building. However, the concept of “military legitimacy” remains under-theorized and its determinants poorly understood. We argue that perceptions of military legitimacy are shaped by two key dimensions of warfare: just cause and just conduct. Leveraging naturally occurring variation during one of the deadliest urban battles in recent history—the multinational campaign to defeat the Islamic State in Mosul, Iraq—we evaluate our theory using a mixed-methods design that combines original survey data, satellite imagery, and …

Listening On Campus: Academic Freedom And Its Audiences, Joseph Blocher

Faculty Scholarship

Current debates about campus speech often conflate two related but importantly distinct values: free speech and academic freedom. Both are widely perceived to be in crisis, but they are not interchangeable, and slippage between the two makes it even harder to frame, let alone address, difficult questions about speech in university settings. Many of the most fundamental challenges—indeed, much of what makes campus speech unique in the first place—arise from the need to accommodate both values. In doing so, defenders of academic freedom must, as advocates of free speech have, more clearly articulate an account of listener interests. The basic …

An Organizational Theory Of Corporate Law, Emilie Aguirre, Julie Yen, Julie Battilana

Faculty Scholarship

Corporate law is in a moment of vibrant and contentious discussions about potential reforms. As firms exit Delaware, passive investment predominates, private equity expands, and public markets decline, corporate law faces a growing set of challenges that threaten its stability and efficacy. At the same time, the world faces pressing crises, including climate change, social and economic inequalities, and threats to democracy, though corporate law scholars typically consider these crises to be outside corporate law’s remit.

In this Article, we argue that to understand and address the multidimensional crises that face both corporate law and society, we must address shortcomings …

Molecular Diagnostic Patenting After Mayo V. Prometheus: An Empirical Analysis, Colleen V. Chien, Jenna Clark, Arti K. Rai

Faculty Scholarship

Since the United States Supreme Court's 2012 decision in Mayo v. Prometheus announced a new legal test for patent-eligible subject matter, policymakers, and scholars have vigorously debated the decision's impact on molecular diagnostics innovation. Molecular diagnostics serve as the cornerstone of personalized medicine and its promise of treatments with fewer side effects and better outcomes for patients. This article contributes to the presently thin evidence base on the impact of Mayo by using data on patent applications, examinations, and grants from 2010 to 2019 to comprehensively trace the effects of the test and subsequent related developments. Using descriptive data as …

States In The Separation Of Powers, Ernest A. Young

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Future Of Ai Regulation In Drug Development: A Comparative Analysis, Gabriela Lenarczyk, Timo Minssen, Nicholson Price, Arti Rai

Faculty Scholarship

As artificial intelligence (AI) transforms drug development, regulatory frameworks are evolving to oversee its implementation, particularly at the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA). This paper makes three contributions to understanding emerging regulatory approaches. First, we offer a comparative analysis of how these agencies have responded to AI-driven advances, incorporating new US executive orders and the European Union (EU)’s AI Act. Second, we propose a novel analytical framework to understand regulatory divergence: the FDA’s flexible, dialog-driven model contrasts with the EMA’s structured, risk-tiered approach, reflecting broader institutional and political-economic differences. While the former encourages …

The International Risk Governance Council: Reflections On A 20-Year Experiment In Support Of Improved Risk Governance, M. Granger Morgan, Marie-Valentine Florin, Igor Linkov, Kenneth A. Oye, Arthur C. Petersen, Ortwin Renn, Jonathan B. Wiener, Lan Xue

Faculty Scholarship

The International Risk Governance Council (IRGC) was a nonprofit foundation, based first as an independent, freestanding Swiss foundation in Geneva from 2003 to 2012, and then affiliated with École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Lausanne from 2012 to 2023. IRGC's mission was to identify and improve the governance of emerging and systemic risks that have, or could have, impacts on human and environmental health, the economy and society, and overall sustainability. In this paper, we recount IRGC's history, describe its many reports, workshops, and conference activities (including tables referencing the many published products), and provide six brief case histories of …

Trauma-Informed Courts? How Judges May Influence Kids’ Experiences Of Court, Eva Mckinsey, Amelia Ashton Thorn, Minjee Kristin Kim, Catherine Gorey

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

What Belongs In A Constitutional Law Casebook?, Ernest A. Young

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Cost–Benefit Analysis, Matthew D. Adler

Faculty Scholarship

This chapter will address the place of cost–benefit analysis (CBA) in constitutional law, by way of a case study. I’ll describe, and puzzle over, CBA’s absence from most U.S. constitutional doctrines, notwithstanding its major role in U.S. administrative law. The general questions that I seek to illuminate are by no means limited to the U.S. How might CBA figure within the tests that constitutional courts use to adjudicate alleged violations of constitutional rights? How might it serve to determine the structure of constitutional institutions? Would it be justified for CBA to play these doctrinal roles? But these general questions are …

Notice Pleading’S Quiet Return, Alexander A. Reinert

Articles

Fifteen years ago, the Supreme Court announced two significant civil procedure decisions – Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544 (2007), and Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662 (2009). Together, Iqbal and Twombly marked a new approach to pleading in federal courts. No longer would courts apply the forgiving notice pleading standard, in force since the 1938 adoption of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. In its place, the Court introduced plausibility pleading, inviting district courts to apply their “judicial experience and common sense” to decide whether a claim was “plausible.” Commentators expressed alarm, predicting that the new standard …

45 Is The New 50: Evaluating Colorectal Cancer Screening Practices In Primary Care, Shemille Flinta, Madison Long, Brittany Wiggins

MSN Research Projects

Colorectal Cancer (CRC) is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths for adults in the United States. There have been significant advances in preventative medicine for CRC, but screening completion lags behind other cancers, with only 61% reported adherence based on USPSTF guidelines. About two-thirds of the patients who are diagnosed with CRC already have distally spread disease. Detecting CRC early is vital, as early detection is linked to smaller tumor sizes and better outcomes. The current research study asked three questions with the objectives of assessing the frequency of CRC screening in primary care clinics, evaluating documented barriers to …

Bibliography Of Scholarship From 2025, University Of San Diego

Annual Bibliography of USD Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Restoration Of River Connectivity Enables Long-Distance Spawning Migrations In A Potamodromous Fish, Dagmara Błońska, Ali Serhan Tarkan, Demetra Andreou, Jonathan D. Bolland, Peter Davies, Jamie R. Dodd, Phillipa Gillingham, Catherine Gutmann Roberts, Fatima Amat-Trigo, Sadi Aksu, Andrew Hindes, O. Jonas Palder, Mark Yeldham, J. Robert Britton

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

Rivers across the world are increasingly fragmented due to anthropogenic barriers, with the restoration of connectivity often using fish passes. Fish passes are, however, usually designed for anadromous species, despite ecologically important non-anadromous species being present in the communities impacted by fragmentation. To assess the outcomes for non-anadromous fishes of the installation of multiple fish passes and weir modifications, the movements of the potamodromous European barbel Barbus barbus were evaluated in the lower River Severn basin, western Britain, which was fragmented by six weirs (two on a tributary, four on the Severn mainstem). Movements of individual fish were measured using …

Contraceptive Use Among Transgender Men And Gender Diverse Individuals In The United States: Reasons For Use, Non-Use, And Methods Used For Pregnancy Prevention, Juno Obedin-Maliver, Ava Snow, Sachiko Ragosta, Laura Fix, Jen Hastings, Micah E. Lubensky, Matthew R. Capriotti, Zubin Dastur, Annesa Flentje, Mitchell R. Lunn, Heidi Moseson

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Objectives: To describe contraceptive use for pregnancy prevention among transgender men and gender diverse (TGD) individuals assigned female or intersex at birth (AFIAB) and explore whether contraceptive use differs by testosterone use. Study design: We analyzed data from a cross-sectional, online survey of N = 1694 TGD individuals AFIAB recruited in 2019 through a community-facing website and a national community-engaged cohort study of sexual and/or gender minority (SGM) adults in the US. Descriptive and regression analyses characterized the current and ever use of contraceptive methods for pregnancy prevention, stratified by testosterone use, and described reasons for contraceptive use/non-use. Results: Most …

Globalism, Localism And Blue Food Systems – How Can Cross-Scale Tensions Be Reduced? A Production Perspective From Uk Seafood Stakeholders, Alex J. Caveen, Bryce D. Stewart, Cameron Moffat, Daniel Skerritt, Estelle Jones, Huw Thomas, Lara Funk, Magnus Johnson, Mike Cohen, Michael Roach, Neil A. Auchterlonie, Samuel Peacock, Sarah Hussey, Tim Gray, Tom Pickerell, Umi Muawanah, Vasiliki Kioupi, Yvonne Sadovy De Mitcheson, Neil M. Burns, Charlotte R. Hopkins

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

‘Blue foods’ are derived from aquatic species that are caught or cultivated and are amongst the most globally traded commodities. Growing emphasis is being placed on blue foods in future transitions to sustainable food systems. However, recent international events such as the Covid-19 pandemic, UK-EU ‘Brexit’, and Russia-Ukraine war have caused renewed interest in ideological debates between globalism and localism and associated cross-scale tensions. Here, we aim to provide further insight into cross-scale tensions in blue food systems through a literature review and UK-based seafood stakeholder workshop. From our literature review, the evidence for cross-scale tensions was linked to the …

Gray Matter Volumetric Changes In Tinnitus: The Impact Of Hearing Loss And Severity, Gibbeum Kim, Rafay A. Khan, Yihsin Tai, Somayeh Shahsavarani, Fatima T. Husain

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Tinnitus is a phantom auditory sensation that commonly co-occurs with hearing loss. Both tinnitus and hearing loss can impact the quality of life, emotional well-being, and cognitive functioning of the affected individuals. While previous studies have highlighted structural alterations in hearing loss and/or tinnitus, the fundamental neural mechanisms underpinning tinnitus severity remain poorly understood. In this study, we conducted a voxel-based morphometry to investigate gray matter (GM) volume differences among groups of participants with varying tinnitus severity and hearing status, and controls within a large sample. We observed reduced GM volume in the left anterior insula and right planum polare …

Characterisation Of Tyre Wear Particle Transport From Road Runoff To Sea In Coastal Environments, Florence N.F. Parker-Jurd, Geoffrey D. Abbott, Daniel C. Conley, Cijo M. Xavier, Florian Pohl, Richard C. Thompson

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

Data on the fate of tyre wear particles (TWPs) within aquatic environments is limited. This study quantified TWPs entering estuaries in stormwater drainage and atmospheric fallout, and once they have reached the marine environment, within surface waters and sediments. TWPs were found at concentrations of 0.4 mg/L, 2.55 mg/m2/d, 0.00063 mg/L, and 0.96 g/kg respectively. Samples were partitioned by size to examine the distribution of TWP mass. 80-90% of TWP mass entering marine systems (stormwater and atmospheric fallout) lay between 31-125 µm. Larger particles preferentially accumulated in sediments where ∼50 % of TWP mass was >250 μm, compared to surface …

You Can Do A Lot And You Don't Have To Be Scared: Learning Outside The Classroom In Alternative Provision: An Ethnographic Study, Exploring Student Behaviour And Relationships In Varied Environmental Contexts, Kelly Davis

School of Law, Humanities and Social Sciences Theses

The most recent school exclusion data for England continues to demonstrate an alarming increase in both suspensions and permanent exclusions in schools across England (Prescott, 2024). In the academic year 2022-2023 there were 786,961 suspensions, the highest recorded annual number of suspensions in England (Department for Education, 2024). Permanent exclusions rose to 9,376 in the academic year 2022-2023, also the highest number of annual permanent exclusions recorded to date in England (Department for Education, 2024). The most recent termly statistics for Autumn 2024 show that both suspensions and permanent exclusions are continuing to rise, with 2023-2024 annual statistics anticipated to …

Bridging The Divide: How Do Lecturers In Undergraduate Sound Engineering Courses Bridge The Gap Between Industry And Education?, Daniel Tregenna

School of Law, Humanities and Social Sciences Theses

The formal study of sound engineering is a relatively modern and under-researched field within modern arts education. However, this subject has a number of features that are common across a range of subjects of a similar nature. How the lecturers who work on these courses influence students and tie them to the wider industry is potentially pivotal in an industry so intrinsically tied to the nature of interpersonal connections. Particularly where this industry simultaneously does not provide stable and sustained working partnerships. This international comparative study looks to explore the role lecturers on undergraduate sound engineering courses play in bridging …

‘At Least I Wasn't In An Inner-City Flat With A Partner I Hated’: An Auto/Biographical Study Of Reflections On Well-Being By 35-65 Year Olds In Cornwall Following The Covid-19 Pandemic, Cheralyn May

School of Law, Humanities and Social Sciences Theses

The effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on mental health have been considerably researched since its start in 2019, by researchers from a range of disciplines around the world. This sociological study (using insights from social and positive psychology) contributes to our knowledge of the pandemic by using qualitative methods – fourteen semi-structured interviews and researcher auto/biography to investigate the mental health experiences of middle-aged, single adults living in Cornwall in the UK during the pandemic. In the pandemic literature, this is an under-researched, and therefore potentially less understood, group and location. The data was analysed using a combination of the …

Reassembling Anti-Oppressive Teaching Practices In Professionally Qualifying Youth And Community Work Education, Christine Smith

School of Law, Humanities and Social Sciences Theses

New and continuing formations of oppression remains a contemporary 21st Century challenge compounded by a fracturing of democratic structures that give rise to intolerance of difference and threaten social bonds. The big questions about the type of society we want to live in, what it means to be human, and the role of education are questions that are increasingly alienated from everyday lived experiences and a collective commitment to shape a fairer and more socially just world. Thus, the scale of challenges underscores a need to think differently about how Anti-Oppressive Practice (AOP) in professionally qualifying youth and community education …

Etomidate And Its Derivatives: Time To Say Goodbye?, J Robert Sneyd, Beatrijs Valk

More Faculty of Health Research

Etomidate, an intravenous hypnotic used for anaesthesia and critical care, is known for its undesirable side effects, including pain on injection, myoclonus, and adrenocortical depression. Despite its continued clinical use due to its hemodynamic stability and rapid onset and offset, alternatives like propofol, ketamine, and remimazolam offer fewer drawbacks. Recent efforts to improve etomidate through chemical modifications, such as methoxyethyl etomidate hydrochloride (ET-26), have shown limited success, with persistent issues like involuntary muscle movements and adrenocortical suppression. We suggest that it might be time to move on from etomidate and focus on developing new anaesthetic agents.

Get Remimazolam Off The Bench And Into The Game, Brian J Anderson, J Robert Sneyd

More Faculty of Health Research

In a high-level sporting fixture, the introduction of a skilled player from the reserve bench can be a game changer. The introduction of propofol into clinical anaesthesia practice was a pharmacological game changer [1]. The drug rapidly assumed dominance over other intravenous options for induction of anaesthesia in children. Propofol use for maintenance does not yet rival that of the inhalational agent, sevoflurane, but acceptance is increasing [2] even in areas such as neonatal anaesthesia and intensive care sedation. None of the other hypnotic drugs available or investigated have competed with propofol in adults or children [3], although remimazolam is …

The State Of Local Anaesthetic Systemic Toxicity In 2025: The Emergence Of Lidocaine As Our Next Challenge, Eric Schwenk, J Robert Sneyd, Christopher Wu

More Faculty of Health Research

Local anaesthetics are an integral part of surgical and medical practice, but their systemic uptake can result in local anaesthetic systemic toxicity (LAST). A recent study by Fettiplace and colleagues examined the US Food and Drug administration’s Adverse Events Reporting System between 1968 and 2023. Although the reporting of death from longacting local anaesthetics decreased after the publication of relevant practice advisories, Fettiplace and colleagues also found that deaths from lidocaine remained essentially unchanged. The emergence of lidocaine as the leading reported cause of deaths attributable to LAST was unexpected, and the reasons behind the relatively higher number of deaths …

Palynology, Landscape And Land Use: Retrospect, Prospect And Research Agendas, Ralph Fyfe, Kevin Edwards, Laura Scoble

More Faculty of Science and Engineering Research

This paper provides a context for the use of anthropogenic palynology in the study of landscape and land use. Retrospective considerations indicate a history to current trends and inform future developments. Recent and prospective studies secure palynology as an essential element in archaeological and related environmental research. It is stressed that palynology is an inherently spatio-temporal discipline that can use concepts such as landscape or habitat heterogeneity as a future framework. This may be possible if recent advances in quantification of local vegetation cover, for example the use of model-based correction approaches within the Landscape Reconstruction Algorithm, are more widely …

Gout Flare Burden In The United States: A Multiyear Cross-Sectional Survey Study, Jasvinder A Singh, Amy Morlock, Robert Morlock

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to assess the burden of gout flares and examine associated patient characteristics and outcomes in a sample of US adults.

METHODS: Data were collected via an online survey of US adults ≥18 years using a random stratified sampling framework. Participants with gout completed questions about treatments, serum urate (SU) levels, severity, satisfaction with control, and gout flares. All participants completed the Veterans RAND 12-Item Health Survey, the Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-Item Scale, and the Patient Health Questionnaire 9-Item Scale. Data were summarized using descriptive statistics. Multivariable-adjusted logistic regression analyses examined factors predictive of …