Digital Commons Network^™

I Want A New (Generic) Drug: A Comparative Case For Shifting U.S. Generic Drug Policies To Increase Availability And Lower Healthcare Costs, Immer S. Chriswell

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

Enacted in 1984, Hatch-Waxman was intended to increase generic drug availability and make critical healthcare more affordable for Americans. In the nearly forty years following, while it has increased availability of drugs, it has also allowed drug originators to create avenues to profit in ways not intended when the original compromise was struck, undermining its success. Moreover, given a weak antitrust standard against reverse settlement payments proscribed in Actavis, the U.S. faces a dilemma to further improve access to generic medications in the future. The E.U.’s approach to generic drugs, while presently geographically fragmented, is simpler and has a clear …

The European Union's New Usb-C Standardization Amendment: What Does It Mean For Innovation Within The Consumer Technology Industry?, Adrien Fourneaux

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

No abstract provided.

China Data Flows And Power In The Era Of Chinese Big Tech, W. Gregory Voss, Emmanuel Pernot-Leplay

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

Personal data have great economic interest today and their possession and control are the object of geopolitics, leading to their regulation by means that vary dependent on the strategic objectives of the jurisdiction considered. This study fills a gap in the literature in this area by analyzing holistically the regulation of personal data flows both into and from China, the world’s second largest economy. In doing so, it focuses on laws and regulations of three major power blocs: the United States, the European Union, and China, seen within the framework of geopolitics, and considering the rise of Chinese big tech. …

The (In)Efficacy Of Multilateral Corruption Laws: Why The United States Should Endorse The International Anti-Corruption Court, Peter Cates

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

Public corruption, the abuse of state power for personal gain, plagues the international community by undermining democracy, exacerbating human rights issues, and stymying economic development. To combat this threat, the international community has taken on multiple treaties to collaboratively curb corruption and its effects including, significantly, the United Nations Convention Against Corruption and the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention. For its part, the United States prosecutes international corruption through the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). The FCPA subjects U.S. companies who engage in bribery schemes (the "supply-side" of corruption) to criminal and civil penalties regardless of whether the actions took place outside …

Disclosure Effects In Influencer Marketing: Implications For Courts, Regulators, And Marketers, Gerlinde Berger-Walliser, Stefan J. Hock, Bjorn Walliser

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

No abstract provided.

When The Ant Gets Too Big: Understanding China’S Financial Regulation Through The Suspension Of Ant Group’S Ipo, Cherie Zhang

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

The suspension of Ant Group’s IPO in 2020 sent shockwaves through China’s financial landscape. Amid speculation that founder Jack Ma’s criticism towards the Chinese government triggered the suspension, this note argues for a nuanced understanding rooted in legal and economic factors unique to the Chinese financial regulatory system. By analyzing Ant’s case, this note contributes to contextualizing China’s evolving banking, securities, and FinTech regulation, while providing lessons for both regulators and fintech companies in fast-growing markets.

A New Era Of Accountability? The Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act’S Pursuit Of Regulatory Equality, Robert Ruelas

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

This paper discusses the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act (HFCAA) as a response to the long-standing regulatory disparities between U.S. and foreign firms listed on U.S. stock exchanges, with particular regard to foreign firms from China. The HFCAA requires that any firms listed on U.S. stock exchanges be subject to inspections by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) or face delisting, aiming to eliminate historic regulatory disparities. The paper begins by highlighting the historic regulatory gap in oversight resulting from China’s lack of cooperation with U.S. regulators and continues by discussing the investor harm from various scandals that could …

Anglo-Saxon Res Judicata Culture For Civil Law Systems, Cesare Cavallini

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

One traditional aspect distinguishing the common law system from the civil law one lies in the perceived disparities in the inspiration of the law-making process. The Anglo-Saxon system typically grounds its rules in explicit and discernible policies spanning social, anthropological, and economic realms directly relevant to the circumstances. In contrast, the civil law tradition frequently necessitates a fixed conceptual framework, sometimes detached from the practical needs of society. Or, at least, this dynamic persisted until recent changes prompted by the “doing business” model, which has timidly ascended to the forefront of the State agenda, particularly across Europe, notably in Italy. …

Non-State Actors For Profit: Revisiting Transnational Corporations' Personhood And Responsibility Under International Law, Katayoon Beshkardana, Faraz Shahlaei

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

The growing impact of Transnational Corporations (TCs) on international trade, investment, and human rights raises the question of international corporate responsibility. For international responsibility, TCs must be recognized as subjects of international law with legal personality. Apart from states as the primary subjects of international law, such status has been granted to inter-governmental organizations (IGOs). The factors that contributed to the IGOs’ recognition as international law subjects seem to be present for TCs today. While the International Court of Justice granted such legal status to IGOs, for TCs, the best path to recognition would be to establish a global authority …

Confronting Ai-Induced Power Disparity And Emotional Disruption: Expansive Duties Of Broker-Dealers And Investment Advisers, Shuping Li, Wei Shen

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

The increasing use of AI models in investment services has raised concerns about ineffective responses, power disparity, and investor harm caused by emotional disruption. Generative AI-driven investment service providers often fail to address consumer issues quickly, guiding customers through superfluous and meaningless verbiage or professional terminology in infinite loops without providing an option to talk with a human customer service staff. Customers who are “stuck” in ineffective or inaccurate responses from AI agents may waste time for investors, make poor investment or trading decisions, and the platform may profit from investor rational decision-making owing to investors’ emotional disruption.

This article …

An Analytical Examination Of The Inefficacy Of China’S Independent Director System: A Comparative Perspective, Nanzhu Wang

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

This paper analyzes the effectiveness of China’s independent director (ID) system in listed companies following the 2023 regulatory reforms enacted by the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC). These reforms raised the independence standards for IDs by broadening disqualification criteria and modifying the appointment mechanisms. Despite the establishment of an ID system this century and the recent enhanced standards, empirical evidence indicates persistent shortcomings in China’s ID mechanism. Many of the positive outcomes initially attributed to IDs—such as improved internal control or better firm performance—cannot conclusively isolate IDs’ independence or expertise as the true cause. In contrast, negative evidence, which specifically …

Updating The Caroline Doctrine: A Relic In An Age Of Hypersonic Weapons, David S. Jonas, Tyler Breeden

American University International Law Review

The United States dropped “Little Boy” and “Fat Man” on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, bringing an end to World War II and killing between 110,000 and 210,000 people. Japan surely needed much more than rock and roll to help them—especially since Japan had no nuclear weapons of their own to deter the United States from attacking with nuclear weapons. Nuclear weapons technology has evolved considerably in the years since 1945, when only the United States possessed nuclear weapons. Nine states now have or are suspected of having them, and at least one other state appears to …

Towards A New Orbit: Addressing The Legal Void In Space Mining, Rebekah Shields

American University International Law Review

As the world’s technologies and capabilities to participate in space mining continue to progress at a rapid rate, the international community must consider what steps are necessary to maintain safety and peace in a largely unregulated field. Accordingly, this Comment will argue that when major spacefaring nations inevitably pass legislation allowing the ownership of space resources, they will be in violation of Article II of the Outer Space Treaty which prohibits the appropriation of celestial bodies by any state.

Part II will begin with an overview of the natural resources that exist in space by highlighting the economic and societal …

Destruction And Discrimination: How France Violated The Fundamental Rights Of Irregular Migrant Children In Mayotte, Molly E. Smith

American University International Law Review

Articles 2 and 3 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) guarantee freedom from status-based discrimination in any state action involving children and require states to properly consider children’s best interests. Despite France’s position as a UNCRC state party, its government denied access to housing and conducted improper detention and expulsion procedures based on the irregular migratory status of children in its small overseas department of Mayotte. This Comment argues that France therefore violated international human rights law under UNCRC Articles 2 and 3. Furthermore, this Comment recommends three possible action steps, particularly that France …

The Legal Origins Of Russian Membership In The Council Of Europe And The Seeds Of Russia's Expulsion, Jeffrey Kahn

Notre Dame Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Epr Study Of Irradiated Starch: Induced Radicals And Dose Assessment, Elsayed Salama, Ahmed M. Maghraby, Samy A. Anwer, M. El-Sayed

Basic Science Engineering

Irradiation of starch is of much importance to get rid of microbes and for disinfection. EPR study of the ionizing radiation-induced radicals can lead to the assessment of radiation doses delivered during irradiation. The EPR spectra properties, microwave power saturation behavior, short- and long-term temporal dependencies, and other significant factors are studied. Response of EPR spectra of irradiated starch over the range (0.5–10 kGy) was investigated. The time dependence study of the radiation-induced signal radicals of starch showed that variation of the EPR signal can be noticed within ±7.7% relative to the average value over 38 days following irradiation. Results …

Genocide By Way Of Birth: Why Denial Of Abortions Makes Poland Complicit In Russia's Genocide In Ukraine, Summer N. Wright

California Western International Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Without Strong Watchdog Institutions: Corruption Is A Cancer, Mohamed 'Arafa

California Western International Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Equality And Human Rights: Confronting Racial Discrimination Introduction, Claudia Martin, Diego Rodríguez-Pinzón

American University International Law Review

Introduction of this special issue of the American University International Law Review and the Academy on Human Rights and Humanitarian Law and acknowledgments.

Developments At The United Nations International Law Commission On Sea-Level Rise, Claudio Grossman Guiloff

American University International Law Review

This article examines some of the challenges presented by the phenomenon of sea-level rise in relation to international law with a focus on the analysis undertaken by the Study Group on Sea-Level Rise (“Study Group”) of the United Nations International Law Commission (“ILC”).

Exploring Service Quality Among Us Hajj Pilgrims In Compliance With Vision 2030 Objectives, Majid Abdulmalik Alshaibi

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

Saudi Arabia is progressing with Vision 2030, an ambitious blueprint for economic variation, global connection, and improved quality of life. The Hajj pilgrimage is addressed by the Doyof Al Rahman Program (DARP), one of the vision's programs aiming to enhance the Hajj experience. The Hajj pilgrimage is one of the world's largest annual massive gatherings and it has already received increased attention from researchers combining elements of pilgrimage and tourism. This dissertation aims to explore Hajj service quality and pilgrims' satisfaction. To attain this objective, a narrative and systematic literature review was conducted to develop a framework with standardized …

Data-Centric Ai: Taming Ai-Ready Feature Space From Decision-Making To Generative-Ai Perspectives, Dongjie Wang

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

Unlike humans, AI systems are brittle and not robust. They often struggle when faced with novel situations, and are highly sensitive to small perturbations, which can lead to catastrophically poor performance. These systems comprise two main components: the model and the data. In recent decades, research has primarily focused on models, emphasizing advanced structures or algorithms to enhance AI performance. However, the data-centric aspect consumes most of the time and resources of human experts and greatly influences AI systems. Furthermore, the gains from the model-centric part are reaching a plateau. Thus, I shifted my research focus toward data-centric AI in …

A Comprehensive And Comparative Examination Of Healthcare Data Breaches: Assessing Security, Privacy, And Performance, Mohammed Al Kinoon

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

The healthcare sector is pivotal, offering life-saving services and enhancing well-being and community life quality, especially with the transition from paper-based to digital electronic health records (EHR). While improving efficiency and patient safety, this digital shift has also made healthcare a prime target for cybercriminals. The sector's sensitive data, including personal identification information, treatment records, and SSNs, are valuable for illegal financial gains. The resultant data breaches, increased by interconnected systems, cyber threats, and insider vulnerabilities, present ongoing and complex challenges. In this dissertation, we tackle a multi-faceted examination of these challenges. We conducted a detailed analysis of healthcare data …

Hierarchical Heterogeneous Catalysts For Hydrogenation Reactions, Azina Rahmani

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

Noble metal catalysts are widely used for their remarkable activity and stability. However, their sustainability is challenged by their scarcity, both in terms of Earth-abundance and production sources. To ensure their sustainable use and long-term availability, it is essential to design new catalytic systems that minimize noble metal usage, maximize reactivity, and allow easy recovery and reuse. One promising approach involves using supported noble metal nanocatalysts (NCs) that enables low loadings of active materials, prevents NCs agglomeration during catalysis, and enhances separability of the catalysts from products. Nickel foams, as NCs support, stand out for their contiguous macroporous 3-D structure …

An Exploration Of Administrative Implementation Of Academically Challenging Curriculum To Enhance Learning (Accel- Fl Statute 1002.3105) In Florida Elementary Schools, Patricia L. Cummings

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

This study investigated the content of 14 Florida district's Student Progression Plans and supportive district documentation to gain a better understanding of each district's implementation of Florida statute 1002.3105, ACCEL; explored the knowledge, attitudes, and experiences of principals of K-5 schools in two large counties in Florida in enacting ACCEL; and utilized the study's findings to create a guide for administrators. The first phase of the study analyzed the 14 largest Florida public school districts utilizing a content analysis and checklists on best practice in acceleration policy from Lupkowski-Shoplik et al. (2018) to examine each district's implementation. The second phase …

Sensing Using Angular Momentum Of Light: From Polarization To Optical Vortices, Mahdi Eshaghi

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

Light is a powerful tool for probing a variety of physical phenomena. This dissertation explores some of the complex properties of light, with a particular emphasis on its angular momentum, encompassing the concepts of polarization and optical vortices that illustrate how light spins and orbits, respectively. The study includes a detailed examination of light polarization and introduces a number of innovative measurement techniques. It also extends the research on optical vortices by analyzing their interaction behavior with various types of inhomogeneous media. The comprehensive investigations are aimed at applications in sensing and communications.

Regarding light polarization, this dissertation presents a …

Adaptive Beyond Von-Neumann Computing Devices And Reconfigurable Architectures For Edge Computing Applications, Mousam Hossain

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

The Von-Neumann bottleneck, a major challenge in computer architecture, results from significant data transfer delays between the processor and main memory. Crossbar arrays utilizing spin-based devices like Magnetoresistive Random Access Memory (MRAM) aim to overcome this bottleneck by offering advantages in area and performance, particularly for tasks requiring linear transformations. These arrays enable single-cycle and in-memory vector-matrix multiplication, reducing overheads, which is crucial for energy and area-constrained Internet of Things (IoT) sensors and embedded devices.

This dissertation focuses on designing, implementing, and evaluating reconfigurable computation platforms that leverage MRAM-based crossbar arrays and analog computation to support deep learning and error …

The Use Of Graphic Organizers On The Reading Comprehension Of High School Students, Beckylee Ramos Lorenzo

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

This study seeks to identify correlation in the use of graphic organizers in reading comprehension of twelfth grade English language arts students. Specifically, this study seeks to determine if the use of graphic organizers in the teaching of reading has impacts on the reading comprehension of 12th grade English language arts students. The study intends to contribute to closing an information gap surrounding the effects of using instructional strategies such as graphic organizers in reading comprehension in a twelfth-grade English class. The research questions helped to guide this study in identifying descriptive statistics within PSAT reading comprehension scores during the …

A Narrative Inquiry On Lived Experiences That Support Recruitment And Retention Of Black Male Mathematics Teachers, Shane Wiggan

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

There is a shortage of Black male teachers in the United States and an even smaller proportion of Black male mathematics teachers. With the population of students in the United States becoming increasingly more diverse, we would greatly benefit from a teaching workforce that aligns with the rich diversity of the student population they serve. This narrative inquiry explored the lived experiences that attracted Black men to the mathematics teaching career and what may have inspired them to continue teaching. The goal was for the data collected through the narratives of four Black male teachers, two former teachers, and two …

Development And Content Validation Of The Student Perception Of School Safety (Spss) Scale: An Expert Evaluation Of Item Relevance Ratings By Law Enforcement And School Guardians, Diana D. Scott

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

There is "no one-size-fits-all solution" to school safety (Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency, 2022. p. 7). The growing number of school shootings and health problems at schools raise serious questions about the dimensions of school safety that should be measured. Prior extensive surveys measuring elementary student's views of safety in relation to relevant safety issues have not been conducted. There were four objectives for this study: 1) to investigate relevant dimensions of school safety and understand safety procedures that are currently in use; 2) to formulate and organize questions that would be approved to gauge elementary students' perceptions about school …