Digital Commons Network^™

Understanding The Evolution Of Enforcement Systems In Resource Dilemmas, Devin M. Flener

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

The effective management of resources on Earth is a pressing global social dilemma. An alternative solution to the traditional managing methods of these common pool resources is communal self-management facilitated through principles of restorative justice and developed through exploratory learning. We examined how communication, restorative justice techniques, and opportunity for exploratory learning impacted groups’ ability to develop a strong conceptual understanding of enforcement as well as an enforcement system in order to maintain an effective conservation strategy. Participants (N=288) were randomly assigned to 72 four-person groups in six separate conditions. Each group played nine rounds of a computer-simulated foraging task …

The Effects Of Medical Malpractice Laws In The American States On Healthcare Expenditures, Madison Fulton

Political Science Theses and Capstones

The relationship between medical malpractice laws and healthcare has been an issue battling since the early 1980s. The relationship differs among states because some states have stricter malpractice laws and others have less strict laws, which ultimately affects the healthcare costs within that state. It is argued that because of the risks of lawsuits against doctors, they tend to practice more defensive medicine, affecting health costs and lawsuit rewards. I analyze data from The National Conference of State Legislatures, The Court Statistics Project, and The Kaiser Family Foundation to assess the correlation between state tort laws and their effect on …

Foreword: Fifty Years Later, An Editor Looks Back, Alan Charles Dell'ario

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

No abstract provided.

The Imagination Unbound: On The New Anti-Rights Trajectory Of The U.S. Supreme Court, Joshua J. Schroeder

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

In the summer of 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court overruled an individual right for the first time in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Org. The Dobbs Court also suggested that several rights-affirming decisions including Loving v. Virginia, Griswold v. Connecticut, and Obergefell v. Hodges should be systematically reviewed to similarly determine their lasting effect, if any. The idea that decades-old precedent should be systematically reviewed by the Court to decide whether it should be overruled under the new Janus v. AFSCME balancing test is uncharted territory.

Using an ad hoc balancing test to systematize the overruling of longstanding decisions is …

A Critical And Historical Analysis Of Ohio’S Post-Millennium Regression To Major-Party Monopoly, Mark R. Brown

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

No abstract provided.

Deformation At Uturuncu Volcano, Bolivia: Modeling The Effect Of Volatile Movement In The Hydrothermal System, Karissa Rosenberger

Earth and Planetary Sciences ETDs

Deformation at volcanos is often a precursor to an eruption, but sometimes volcanos experience uplift without actually erupting. Determining the mechanisms behind this deformation and whether it will lead to an eruption is an important part of understanding volcanic systems. Uturuncu volcano in Bolivia has been experiencing deformation for decades, but the last time it erupted was 250,000 years ago. The reason behind this deformation is unknown, but one possible cause is volatiles moving into the hydrothermal system and getting trapped, causing the volume to increase and the surface to uplift. To test this hypothesis, the current volume change of …

Symposium Introduction, Pamela Wilkins, Suzianne Painter-Thorne

Mercer Law Review

Anyone from Mercer University or from Macon, Georgia—indeed, anyone from the American South—should understand the truth of this statement. Markers and reminders of the past are ubiquitous: the Ocmulgee Mounds that were occupied by different Native American cultures for thousands of years; Confederate monuments that were only recently moved away from downtown Macon; even a plaque commemorating where Reverend Pearly Brown liked to play the gospel blues; and a museum in the house where the Allman Brothers once lived, jammed, and smoked weed. Whether we celebrate or deplore them, these long-spun webs (at least in part) define us.

The Battle Of The Narrative In Jones V. Mississippi: Consideration Of Youth “In Name Only”, Stevie Leahy

Mercer Law Review

Juvenile sentencing within the United States is but one illustration of how the legal system reinforces the marginalization of populations that have been historically underinvested and underrepresented. Throughout the past century, the macro-narrative on sentencing has fluctuated nationally, as well as within individual states, with the reasoning used to justify decisions sliding between the conflicting lenses of rehabilitation and punishment. This has necessarily impacted the micro-narrative—the way that an individual’s story is considered and weighed (or ignored) within sentencing. There are endless factors that affect outcomes in sentencing: class, race and or ethnicity, gender, and access to counsel are just …

Law's Body, Matt Saleh, Hannah Potter, Kendall Foley

Mercer Law Review

How do law’s narratives construct one of its central objects: the human body? This essay explores legal constructions of the human body: both in its idealized form, and in the negative ontological spaces of injury, disability, death, and dehumanization that surround that ideal.

Bodies are “the very ‘stuff’ of law.” There are few areas of law where the human body does not, somewhere, require definition. For instance, without a concept of the body, there can be no consequent constructions of personhood, nakedness, state intrusion, injury, disability, duty of care, aging, or the moment of death, to name only a few.

32 Shots In The Dark: How Local Governments Can Increase Police Accountability When States Refuse To, Marcia M. Ziegler

Mercer Law Review

On March 13, 2020, Breonna Taylor was shot to death in her apartment hallway by police officers executing a search warrant. The warrant was based on a false affidavit, the executing officers acted criminally on scene, and in the aftermath, detectives spread misinformation about the case on social media. While there was some limited accountability for the officers involved, many citizens considered the official response to be lackluster. After a period of public protest, Louisville and other cities all over the country have examined options for police reform at the local level. While most law enforcement agencies operate in a …

The Rise Of Public School Prayer With The Demise Of Lemon V. Kurtzman, Samantha Thompson Lipp

Mercer Law Review

The Supreme Court of the United States has officially overturned Lemon v. Kurtzman. The controversial and heavily criticized Lemon opinion sets forth the primary test courts used for over fifty years in analyzing claims under the Establishment Clause. The official overruling of Lemon signals the Supreme Court’s embrace of a more accommodating approach toward religion in the public sphere. This Comment predicts how, in Lemon’s absence, the Supreme Court will likely reassess precedent in the context of public school prayer and become more accommodating of religion.

In Part II, this Comment addresses the three approaches to interpreting the …

Critical Race Theory (Crt) In The Legal Academy: Derrick Bell’S Seminal Law Review Articles And Critical Race Theorists Scholarship; Crt Opponents Conflicting Views And Potential Consequences Of Critics’ Cancellation Strategy, Cynthia Elaine Tompkins

Mercer Law Review

This Article discusses Critical Race Theory (CRT), a legal study developed by law professors for law school education. Many, if not most, critical race theorists credit Derrick Bell as the law professor who founded and inspired CRT, and even after he died in 2011, his extensive volume of scholarship remains influential, especially among scholars of critical race and law topics. This Article examines Derrick Bell’s earliest law review articles’ critiques of civil rights laws, his Interest Convergence theory, and his assessment that racism is systemic and permanent in the United States of America.

CRT critics broadly categorize African American history, …

United States Questionnaire Answers: Concerning Artificial Intelligence, Copyright And Related Rights, Philippa Loengard

Kernochan Center for Law, Media, and the Arts

ALAI-USA is the U.S. branch of ALAI (Association Littèraire et Artistique Internationale). ALAI-USA was started in the 1980's by the late Professor Melville B. Nimmer, and was later expanded by Professor John M. Kernochan.

Drselects: Juan Montalvan Lume On Decolonial, Systemic, And Critical Studies In Design And Design Research, Juan Montalvan Lume

DRSelects

No abstract provided.

Investigation Into Itadori Knotweed As A Control Of Bank Erosion In New Hampshire Rivers, Lauren Kaehler

Master's Theses and Capstones

As floods increase in frequency and magnitude throughout New England, research on controls of erosion is necessary to help manage riverbank erosion and its implications on river system health and safety of infrastructure situated along the bank. Reynoutria japonica (Itadori knotweed) is an invasive species spreading throughout New Hampshire rivers which is suspected to cause riverbank erosion due to its unique root structure and winter die-back. To examine the impact of knotweed on riverbank erosion, paired knotweed and native species vegetation patches were selected as study sites along the Sugar and Lamprey Rivers, New Hampshire. Study sites were monitored over …

Tragedy Of The Digital Commons, Chinmayi Sharma

North Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

Rigid And Non-Rigid Images: Effects On Prospective Person Memory In Missing Persons Cases, Lauren Terry

Psychological Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

Every day in the United States, people are reported missing with the hopes that a recovery will be made using missing person alerts and the help of the public. This paradigm for finding missing persons hinges on the prospective memory of the individuals that see the missing person alert. Prospective person memory (PPM) is a form of event-based prospective memory wherein the “event” is a sighting of the missing person, and the associated action is reporting the sighting to authorities (Lampinen et al., 2009). PPM may be improved through increased facial recognition abilities. Previous research has indicated an increase in …

Should Water Be Commodified? An Analysis Of Government Regulation Of Corporate Access To U.S. Water Supplies, Mandalin Marcell

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

My primary research questions are: first, what is the legal framework that allows corporations in the United States to source water for the sale of bottled water; and second, what are the environmental, economic, and political impacts of their actions in the affected communities? I answer these questions by exploring the variety of state laws that corporations are utilizing to access water sources, collecting data on all fifty states. I then focus on three communities in different U.S. states, focusing on regions with varying legal structures in place. The communities I focus on are Fryeburg, Maine;Osceola County and Mecosta County, …

Revenue, Race, And The Potential Unintended Consequences Of Traffic Enforcement Reform, Beth A. Colgan

North Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

Left Behind, Again: Intellectual Disability And The Resentencing Movement, Katie Kronick

North Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

Abolishing Juvenile Interrogation, Samantha Buckingham

North Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Printed Publication Bar And The Price Of Publicly Available Information, Leah Ehler

North Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Ethical Implications Of The Multi-Level Marketing Industry, Lauren Longworth

Marketing Undergraduate Honors Theses

The first multi-level marketing (MLM) businesses were created in the early 20th century and have seen a substantial increase in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic due to their work-from-anywhere nature. Multi-level marketing is “the practice of distributing, selling or supplying products or services through various levels of independent agents” (Koehn, 2001, p. 153). As working from home became the norm in the past few years, MLM businesses promised financial freedom, a steady income, and opportunities for growth, all by working on the Internet. What was often less transparent is the likelihood of these independent agents making a profit. Distributors have …

This Woman's Work: A Comprehensive Analysis Of The Domestic Workers Who Swept The Shards Of A Shattered Glass Ceiling, Grier Mcclard

Political Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

In "This Woman's Work: A Comprehensive Analysis of the Domestic Workers who Swept the Shards of a Shattered Glass Ceiling" Grier McClard argues that the industry of Domestic Service experienced a massive shift in the second half of the 20th century, transforming from a sign of wealth and privilege, to a necessity for many. Despite the necessity of domestic workers for families, they are consistently one of the most unprotected and underpaid class of workers. McClard ties these changes in Domestic Work to Second Wave feminist ideology, and the influx of women working away from their houses.

How Lgbtqia+ Citizenship Transcends The Nation- State Paradigm: An Argument For Supranational Queer Citizenship, Marcus Cantrell

Political Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

Current conceptions of citizenship, which are heteronormative and tie citizenship to membership in a nation-state, do not account for the quotidian experiences of LGBTQ people across the globe. Seeing as the queer community is a relatively small one, many queer people feel a sense of shared fate with LGBTQ people across the diaspora and feel helpless when they see their queer siblings being persecuted in egregious ways. Thus, the need for a new type of uniquely queer citizenship becomes salient. This thesis posits that a supranational queer citizenship would be the most effective conception of citizenship for queer people because …

Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction Plan, Lauren Bruhl, Guinter Vogg, Gabe Hamburg, Shanu Sankara, Rohan Kansagra, Colin Page, Colette Vynerib

Sustainability Exchange Projects

Our team aimed to compile a greenhouse gas inventory for the St. Louis region. Partnered with OneSTL, Ameren, and the USGBC, we determined that St. Louis has a goal to reduce emissions 50% by 2030 from 2005 levels, and become carbon neutral in 2050. After analyzing the Ameren’s Integrated Resource Plan and factors such as the cost and scope of emissions, we researched funding sources to improve energy efficiency and increase renewables in the region. Our top funding sources are the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL). From the IRA, we found the following credits most …

Investigating Barriers To Conservation Of Freshwater Mussels In South Carolina, Olivia Poelmann

All Theses

Freshwater mussels are a diverse group of filter-feeding bivalves inhabiting freshwater systems; however, ~70% of U.S. species are imperiled. Many freshwater mussel species use fish hosts to complete juvenile transformation making host fish knowledge important for conservation efforts like captive propagation. While captive propagation programs have produced thousands of juveniles, survival post-release into natural systems is poorly studied. To address these absences of information, my first objective was to investigate differences among host use of naturally infested fishes and timing of larval release. My second objective was to evaluate survivorship of laboratory propagated juvenile Carolina Heelsplitter (Lasmigona decorata), …