Digital Commons Network^™

How U.S. Legal Stagnation Can Be Aided By Decolonization, Marquel Gardner

McNair Summer Research Program

Decolonization is a term often used to present a simple shift from colonial thinking, heavily maintaining the establishment of colonial systems today. However, this usage oversimplifies and overshadows the word’s key purpose. Common proclamations of the term forgo the fundamental indigenous essence behind the word. Doing so, we not only strip the word of its inherent power, but obstruct further possibilities for actual decolonization to appear in our world. Many argue that the U.S. legal system, a product of colonial factors, has reached an alarming state. Our current legal, political atmosphere gears not towards justice or morality, but fascism and …

Corruption In The Service Of The Common Good: The Legitimation Of Traditional Practitioners In Cameroon, Victorine Oyane Ossah

Journal of Law and Public Policy

This article shows how health law and public policy, in seeking to regulate traditional medicine, without fully recognising it, paradoxically end up producing the very social conditions for the corruption that they are supposed to combat. The aim is to identify, based on the experience of traditional healers, the various factors that contribute to establishing corruption not as a moral choice, but as a pragmatic strategy for preserving their knowledge, resources, and place in the healthcare system. The analysis presented is based on a qualitative survey of 30 traditional medicine practitioners in Yaoundé and Douala between 2021 and 2026, in …

Judges, Speaking Of Death: Criminal Sentencing As A Socio-Cultural Practice In India’S Trial Courts, Ashna Devaprasad

Socio-Legal Review

What role does language play in legitimising the exercise of judicial discretion during sentencing? And what can a judge’s linguistic choices tell us about the wider sentencing culture of a criminal justice system? Sentencing outcomes have long attracted considerable attention in criminal law scholarship, but the process of sentencing – the logics judges use, the narratives they construct, and the audiences they seek to persuade – has received much less empirical scrutiny. Building on ideas from “law and culture” and organisational sociology literature, this Article proposes studying sentencing as a “socio-cultural” practice; one that qualitatively examines the judicial function of …

U.S. Regulation And Litigation Regarding Gmos: A Cautionary Tale Of A Piecemeal Framework, Michael R. Reese, George V. Granade

Northern Illinois University Law Review

Bioengineered crops using genetically modified organisms (GMOs or GM) are big business in the United States. In little more than two decades, GM agriculture constitutes more than 90% of crops such as corn, soy, and canola. The acceptance of GMO foods by consumers, however, has not been as robust—leading to demand for labeling regulations so consumers can identify whether their foods contain GMOs. U.S. law governing GMOs, particularly food labeling, lacks a comprehensive regulatory scheme and is instead highly fragmented. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has debated how to label such foods for over a decade, issuing no rules …

For My Oklahomies: Educators’ Perspectives On Policy, Public Discourse, And Professional Wellbeing, Cassandra Herndon

Dissertations

This critical qualitative study examines how ideologies rooted in ultra-conservative movements shape the professional lives of Oklahoma K–12 educators, and how they maneuver, resist, or accommodate ideological forces within a climate of surveillance and professional delegitimization. Grounded in critical social theory and drawing on Foucault (1977) and Leonardo (2003), the study applies a recontextualized model of transformational resistance (Hannegan-Martinez et al., 2024) to analyze educators’ acts of agency within a restrictive policy landscape.

Drawing on semi-structured interviews with eight Oklahoma K–12 teachers and administrators, this study employs critical narrative inquiry alongside reflexive thematic and critical policy analysis to ask: (1) …

Justice By Geography: District-Level Variation In Pretrial Release Outcomes Across Oregon, Ethan Loomis

Dissertations and Theses

AbstractOregon’s pretrial system operates under a common statewide legal framework, yet detention and release outcomes do not appear fully consistent across jurisdictions. Earlier research on pretrial decision-making has largely focused on judicial discretion, individual-level legal factors, and the use of risk assessment tools, while giving less attention to the district-level environments in which those decisions are made. This study examines whether variation in institutional capacity, political context, demographic composition, and socioeconomic conditions corresponds with differences in pretrial outcomes across Oregon’s circuit court districts.

The study draws from focal concerns theory, racial threat perspectives, and organizational approaches to court decision-making. Rather …

James Wilson And His Republic Of Happiness, Seth Ryan Hodges

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The following dissertation examines the political and moral philosophy of James Wilson, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and a Framers’ theorist whose synthesis of natural law, theology, and Enlightenment moral philosophy grounded what he referred to as the “Republic of Happiness.” It argues that Wilson’s concept of happiness was not rhetorical, but the structural foundation of his legal and constitutional thought. Drawing on Wilson’s Lectures on Law, revolutionary pamphlets, and convention debates, the study demonstrates that for Wilson, happiness meant moral excellence rather than pleasure or material satisfaction. The pursuit of happiness represented both a divine command and …

Beyond The Ban: Chhaupadi Abolition And The Governance Of Menstrual Autonomy In Western Nepal, Nikita Paudel

Master in Public Policy Theses

This thesis examines how two decades of efforts to abolish chhaupadi have shaped the everyday conditions under which women and girls experience menstruation in western Nepal. Chhaupadi, commonly understood as menstrual seclusion, has been addressed through Supreme Court directives, national policy, criminal law, municipal implementation instruments, hut demolition campaigns, public health programming, and rights-based advocacy. Yet the practice has persisted, adapted, and in some cases moved into less visible spaces. Rather than treating this as a simple gap between law and practice, this thesis asks how abolition efforts themselves have become part of the regulatory regime through which menstruation is …

Hammurabi’S Laws: Ancient Traditions Of Violence, Aaron Secrist

The Confluence

The tradition of enforcing private property through violence is truly ancient, and goes back thousands of years to the first civilizations. There exists a prevailing attitude that contemporary culture is more “civilized” than the first organized societies – and while it’s true in some ways, our laws are still remarkably similar to those practiced in antiquity. In the following essay, I analyze the Law Code of Hammurabi and examine its parallels to the way laws function today. First, I will provide context for the technological advances that made the first city-states possible, then give a cultural and economic overview of …

The United States Still Says “I Do” To Marital Rape: An Examination Of Modern Marital Rape Exemptions, Jaiden Herald

Advanced Issues in Criminal Law: Sex Offenses

This paper examines the persistence of marital rape exemptions in the United States despite the formal criminalization of spousal rape in all fifty states. Through historical analysis and statutory comparison, the paper traces the origins of marital rape exemptions to common law doctrines rooted in implied consent, coverture, and the treatment of women as property. It further analyzes modern exemptions that continue to shield perpetrators through loopholes involving cohabitation, incapacity, reporting requirements, or reduced penalties. By highlighting statutes from states such as South Carolina, Arkansas, and Iowa, the paper demonstrates how marital status continues to undermine equal protection for victims …

Narrating Injustice: Race, Law, And American Literature, Taylor A. Levine

Honors Scholar Theses

This project examines the relationship between race and law as it is portrayed by works of American literature. It argues that the gap between the legal system’s claims of neutrality and the lived experiences of Black individuals exposes systemic injustice that may be concealed in traditional legal discourse. Texts examined include Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup, To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, and The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. Additionally, Prison Noir, an anthology of narratives written by incarcerated individuals edited by Joyce Carol Oates, is examined to emphasize how modern mass incarceration works to …

Gun Rights And Public Safety: A Constitutional Tension, Kirsten Zonkowski

NSU Undergraduate Law Journal

This paper examines the constitutional tension between gun regulation and the right to bear arms in the United States. By analyzing landmark Supreme Court cases and major legislative developments, tracing the historical foundations of the Second Amendment, exploring judicial interpretations, and identifying ongoing doctrinal challenges, it highlights  the central constitutional conflict: the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right to keep and bear arms, yet that right often clashes with the government’s responsibility to protect citizens and maintain public safety. Courts and legislatures continue to struggle to define the limits of governmental authority without infringing upon fundamental constitutional rights, revealing an …

The Prosecution Of Nicolás Maduro, Jose Manuel Vanegas

NSU Undergraduate Law Journal

This paper examines the complex legal and political issues that came from the capture of Nicolás Maduro by United States authorities, an event that has generated controversy in both domestic and international legal debate. It begins by providing the necessary background of Maduro’s rise to power, his role as president, and the broader political and economic conditions of Venezuela under his administration. The paper then analyzes the criminal charges brought against him in U.S. federal court, including allegations of narco-terrorism, conspiracy to import cocaine, and related offenses tied to alleged collaborations with transnational criminal organizations. Building on this foundation, the …

Property And Social Justice In Thomas Paine’S Agrarian Justice: Revaluating Modern American Property Law, Amanda Infante

NSU Undergraduate Law Journal

This paper critically examines the philosophical core of property law through the lens of Thomas Paine’s Agrarian Justice. Paine challenges the conception of property as a natural right, instead theorizing land ownership as a social construct contingent on communal needs and obligations. This framework is situated as an intellectual precursor to contemporary legal debates regarding the legitimacy and moral limits of private property. The analysis engages with pivotal Supreme Court decisions, including Village of Euclid v. Ambler Realty Co., Penn Central Transportation Co. v. New York City, and Lucas v. South Carolina Coastal Council, to set …

Current Atmosphere Of Artificial Intelligence Liability: Implications And Best Practices For Legal Professionals And Ai Providers, Alyssa Heinze

NSU Undergraduate Law Journal

The rapid integration of artificial intelligence into the legal profession has transformed legal research, drafting, and decision-making, while simultaneously introducing novel ethical, regulatory, and liability risks. As attorneys increasingly rely on generative AI systems, concerns surrounding hallucinations, bias, confidentiality breaches, and deceptive outputs have led to heightened scrutiny for both legal professionals and AI developers. This paper examines the current and emerging landscape of artificial intelligence liability in the United States. It gives particular attention to the absence of a comprehensive federal regulatory framework, the constitutional controversy surrounding Executive Order 14179, and its preemption of state AI legislation.

By analyzing …

The Current Legal Landscape Of The War On Terror; An Analysis Of The 2001 Authorization For Use Of Military Force And Its Constitutionality, Scope And Applicability, Avalyn Crosson

NSU Undergraduate Law Journal

This paper will examine the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force [hereby known as “The Authorization”] passed by Congress in the wake of September 11, 2001. For the past two decades, the applicability and legality of its application have been called into question by both Congress and the public. While controversial, The Authorization continues to be the central legal authority for counterterrorism operations against Al-Qaeda and affiliated forces. Signed into law by President George W. Bush, The Authorization mirrors the urgency of defending against further terrorist attacks and the demand by the American public to bring those responsible to …

The Manifestation Of George Orwell’S 1984 In The Legal Profession’S Use Of Ai, Alexa Cedras

NSU Undergraduate Law Journal

George Orwell’s 1984 tells the chilling story of an oppressive regime that uses information control and manipulation to further its political agenda. Within the realm of 1984, the Party, the head of the regime, weaponizes instruments, such as a telescreen, to subject citizens to ongoing surveillance with the promise that any suspicious activity will be punished. In furtherance of that agenda, the Party controls every existing narrative of the past, present, and future, using their authoritarian position to alter primary and secondary sources for their benefit. Lastly, by creating a new language to serve as a linguistic constraint, the Party …

“Supreme Court, Tear Down This Wall!”: Kennedy V. Bremerton School District And The Erosion Of The Barrier Between Church And State, Ari Allon

NSU Undergraduate Law Journal

This Article conducts a critical examination of Kennedy v. Bremerton’s ruling, which replaced the Lemon test with the historical practices and understandings test. Following a brief background on the Religion Clauses’ jurisprudence, the author contests that the historical practices and understandings test fails to adhere to long-held Supreme Court reasoning behind the creation of the Religion Clauses. This new test is likewise an insufficient framework for determining Establishment Clause violations.

The Article continues with an analysis on the conflicting fact patterns between the majority and dissenting opinions of Kennedy v. Bremerton. The author then discusses the precedential impact …

Void, Voidable, And The Limits Of Finality: Reconciling Equity And Public Policy In Illinois Child Support Orders, Julie M. Pirtle

Northern Illinois University Law Review

What happens when a 2012 agreed order, which dismisses a 2009 paternity finding, waives child support, and sets no parenting time, is challenged as void twelve years later and now Mother says Father has a $63,219.60 arrearage? My client, the Father and payor of support, was facing just that scenario. It is common knowledge that an out of court agreement to modify/terminate child support is not enforceable unless it is reduced to writing and approved by the courts. However, a party to a litigation should be allowed to rely on the orders the court enters. Father has every right to …

The Bankruptcy Code's Missing Link: How The Undefined "Executory Contract" Quandary Is Leaving Land Sales And Bankruptcy Courts In Limbo, Abby Ponder

Northern Illinois University Law Review

Arguably the most convoluted concept lurking within bankruptcy law is that of the "executory contract" which may be found within section 365 of the bankruptcy code. Since its inception in 1978, this section has been dubbed one of the most "psychedelic" areas of American jurisprudence. The phantasmagoric nature of this section largely derives from Congress declining to provide a definition within the Code for executory contracts. Already rife with confusion and contradiction, the missing definition of executory contract, which comes under section 365, represents a significant "missing link" of understanding for bankruptcy courts in ruling on land sale contracts. Bankruptcy …

The Establishment Clause And The Ten Commandments Post-Lemon, Richard Kato

Northern Illinois University Law Review

Louisiana recently passed a law requiring that a display of the Ten Commandments be placed in all public school classrooms in the state. The law is currently facing an Establishment Clause challenge in the Fifth Circuit. This Comment argues that Louisiana’s Ten Commandments law does not violate the original public meaning of the Establishment Clause. The history of the Establishment Clause suggests that noncoercive support of religion was widely accepted before and up through the time of the First Amendment’s enactment. Following Kennedy v. Bremerton School District’s abandonment of the Lemon v. Kurtzman test, the Ten Commandments law must …

The Supreme Court, Regime Politics, And Federalism: From The New Deal To The Trump Era, J. Mitchell Pickerill, Lilly A. Pickerill

Northern Illinois University Law Review

In the 1990s, the conservative majority on the Rehnquist Court championed state sovereignty and autonomy in a series of cases some commentators dubbed a “federalism revolution.” The Supreme Court crafted constitutional doctrines under the Commerce Clause, Tenth and Eleventh Amendments, and Section Five of the Fourteenth Amendment that limited federal powers while protecting or bolstering state powers. The Court’s doctrines in those cases diverged from its approach to constitutional federalism since the New Deal in the 1930s, but it tracked with the conservative Republican political agenda promoting a “new federalism” going back to Presidents Nixon and Reagan. However, as the …

A Thumb On The Scales: How The Court Creates Presumptions To Change The Law, John Leubsdorf

Northern Illinois University Law Review

In four major recent decisions, the Supreme Court deployed the same technique: it created a presumption in favor of the result it preferred and then concluded that the losing party could not rebut that presumption. This invocation of presumptions enabled the majority to reach the result it preferred, while maintaining the appearance of balance and leaving open the possibility of different rulings in future cases. The asserted grounds for erecting the Court’s presumptions-notably history and governmental structure-likewise combined the appearance of objectivity with the reality of choice. Judicial presumptions are not new, but the current Court deploys them on a …

From Taboo To Treatment: A Trip Through A State-Based Roadmap To Psychedelic Rescheduling, Logan P. Doughty

Northern Illinois University Law Review

Psychedelics, a class of psychoactive substances that profoundly alter perception, mood, and cognition, show significant promise as a treatment option for mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder. However, under the current regulatory framework of the Controlled Substances Act, these substances remain classified as Schedule I, the most restrictive category of federal control. This classification has made research and clinical access nearly impossible, largely due to the Drug Enforcement Administration’s insistence on randomized control trial evidence to satisfy the evidentiary standard of “currently accepted medical use” (CAMU). This evidentiary burden reflects more than a veneer of …

Are They Really Safe? The Impact Of The Safe-T Act On Victims Of Crimes, Brianna Reed

Northern Illinois Law Review Supplement

Within the past few years, Illinois has gone through a bail reform that has changed how a defendant’s pretrial custody status is determined. This reform has negatively impacted victims, resulting in more safety risks, judicial interpretation, and a decrease in resources. These issues are emerging as practitioners work with victims constantly and information becomes more available to the public. This Article, based in part on interviews with attorneys and victims’ services advocates, proposes remedies that legislators and counties can adopt to help balance the rights of defendants and victims. Some of these remedies include modifying the legislation, adopting different procedures, …

Mischaracterizing Officer Self-Defense Doctrine In Use Of Force Cases Will Have Catastrophic Effects On Fourth Amendment Analysis, Caleb Sook Yoon

Northern Illinois Law Review Supplement

As raised in Barnes v. Felix, the moment of threat doctrine was coined by the Fifth Circuit’s majority and concurring opinions written by Judge Higginbotham as being a test that only looks to the preceding moments that led to officers’ use of deadly force. This is a mischaracterization of the officer self-defense doctrine under the “totality of the circumstances” test established by Graham v. Connor when evaluating police use of force. Unfortunately, this mischaracterization has been reinforced by SCOTUS during oral arguments and through SCOTUS’s ruling. As the Supreme Court has remanded the case back to the district courts, this …

Mister President & May It Please The Executive: Causal Barriers To Court-Packing, Mason Smith

Seaver College Research And Scholarly Achievement Symposium

As attacks on democracy have become increasingly ubiquitous, scholarship has begun to shed light on a common, effective, and inimical means of subverting governments accountable to the masses: court-packing. So, how can democracies prevent court-packing? Among many implicit causal theories taken from the extant research, which hasn’t directly tackled this problem, two seem the most plausible and ripe for analysis, suggesting that court-packing’s success turns on either the strength (i) of institutional constraints or (ii) of domestic judicial norms. To see which theory works better in practice, I use a narrowly tailored iteration of comparative process tracing, as it best …

Why A “Blog” For Law, Ethics & Public Policy?, Declan M. Hurley, Jack Manning

Notre Dame JLEPP: In Limine

Hurley and Manning explain why JLEPP needs a new short-form publication--JLEPP In Limine--for relevant scholarly commentary.

Why Democratic Backsliding Is Legal: Judicial Legitimacy And Institutional Decay In The United States, Sherlyn Ochoa

Posters - 2026

“In the United States, democratic backsliding is not a violation of the law—it is increasingly a product of it.” Democratic change often occurs through judicial interpretation Courts shape rights, participation, and equality Focus: how judicial legitimacy allows major democratic shifts—both expansion and restriction of rights

Behind The Suit: How Recovering A Biblical Worldview And Implementing Spiritual Formation Practices Can Improve The Mental Health Crisis In The Legal Profession, Makayla G. Johnson

Senior Honors Theses

A Biblical worldview is the foundation upon which the United States government and legal system is built, however in recent years the understanding of a Biblical Worldview has been in decline. This shift has had a profound impact on the legal field, causing a loss of purpose and meaning in the profession, which research asserts has in part caused many mental health issues found in the legal field. With this in mind, the following study will include information regarding the extent to which the implementation of spiritual formation practices, when practiced specifically by those in the legal profession, could impact …