Law Commons^™

Policing, Prejudice And Change: Confronting Racial Bias In Policing, Aliya Ross

A with Honors Projects

Exploring racism, and discrimination within the Justice System and recommendation for reform.

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

Corporate Scenarios: Drawing Lessons From History, Madison Condon

Seattle University Law Review

As corporations are increasingly pressed to reveal information about their exposure to climate-related risks, they are often asked to undertake and disclose the outcome of “scenario analysis.” In this exercise, corporations, including financial institutions, examine how their business would fare under different pathways the future may take. One oft-used scenario, for example, is the International Energy Agency’s “Net-Zero by 2050: A Roadmap for the Energy Sector.” This Essay presents a history of the use of scenarios as a corporate planning tool, particularly in the oil industry, arguing that it is key for understanding our present moment and the role of …

Shareholder Expression In A Time Of Heightened Political Tension, Aaron A. Dhir

Seattle University Law Review

In this article, I provide context for my forthcoming research project on shareholder proposals and racial equity audits. Since the murder of George Floyd in May of 2020, progressive shareholder actors have increasingly used the proposal mechanism to advance diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice-related goals. These proposals have frequently gone beyond requesting the usual corporate fare of diversity trainings, intersectionality workshops, affinity groups, etc. Instead, a more ambitious type of proposal asks corporate America to conduct racial equity audits, defined as “an independent, objective and holistic analysis of a company’s policies, practices, products, services and efforts to combat systemic racism …

Corporate Governance Speech, Sarah C. Haan

Seattle University Law Review

The State has always regulated the intra-firm communications that make corporate governance possible, most commonly by mandating disclosures of information by a corporation to its shareholders. Some such laws are labeled “securities regulation,” but securities regulation is a broad category that extends to speech by actors who are outside the corporate enterprise as well. Also, the conventional securities regulation category does not capture all such laws; other examples, including informationforcing mandates, can be found in state corporate law. This Article uses the term “corporate governance speech” to describe the communications among shareholders, directors, and officers through which corporate governance is …

Dark Accounting Matter, Colleen Honigsberg

Seattle University Law Review

Physicists calculate that approximately 85% of the matter in the universe is composed of “dark matter” that “does not absorb, reflect, or emit electromagnetic radiation and is therefore difficult to detect.” The S&P 500 currently trades at a price-to-book value of 4.2, suggesting that book value accounts for less than 20% of the S&P 500’s market value. The remaining 80% appears nowhere in these firms’ balance sheets—it is invisible to contemporary accounting techniques and constitutes “dark accounting matter.”

Some “dark accounting matter” is composed of factors commonly described as components of “ESG.” Human capital, for example, is an intangible asset …

The Employees’ Dilemma: Balancing Internal Reporting, Whistleblowing, And Insider Trading Risks, Geeyoung Min

Seattle University Law Review

The Essay examines how recent developments in insider trading regulations and whistleblower reward programs can lead to unintended and counterproductive results of discouraging employees from using internal reporting channels within corporate compliance programs. While the presence of a robust and well-functioning corporate compliance program is a critical factor both in mitigating the level of public enforcement actions against companies and in protecting corporate managers from liability in private litigation, these programs often provide little incentive for employees to report potential misconduct internally.

Corporate compliance programs are designed to promote the upward information flow within the company, which is essential for …

How The Antidiscrimination Law Of Commercial Transactions Really Works, Helen Norton

Seattle University Law Review

A variety of businesses now cite 303 Creative when seeking First Amendment protection for their refusal to serve certain customers based on those customers’ protected class status. How this litigation will play out remains to be seen. But future courts need not, and should not, repeat the 303 Creative Court’s misunderstanding of how the antidiscrimination law of commercial transactions actually works.

Part I of this Essay explains the Court’s longstanding understanding of the antidiscrimination law of commercial transactions, and then describes the Court’s failure to engage with this precedent in 303 Creative. Part II then identifies the 303 Creative decision’s …

What’S Left Of The New Deal State?, Sandeep Singh Dhaliwal

Michigan Law Review Online

A vast body of scholarship situates itself in the New Deal era. Another extensive collection explores the history of criminal justice in the United States. To date, however, there has been little effort to bring these conversations together. New Deal Law and Order, written by legal historian Anthony Gregory, fills this conspicuous gap. Gregory remarkably narrates the New Deal era through the lens of President Franklin Roosevelt’s “war on crime” (p. 1), challenging how we think about both the New Deal’s legacy and the foundations of the modern security state.

Tonry’S Blueprint For The Comparative Study Of Sentencing Law And Policy, Kevin R. Reitz

Articles

This essay explores Michael Tonry’s treatment of sentencing law and policy within the U.S. as an inherently comparative project. The essay draws from Tonry’s “early period” in comparative sentencing from the late 1970s to the middle 1990s, when his writing was largely U.S.-centric, focued on quickly changing conditions in dozens of states and the federal system. Tonry classified the several models of “sentencing reform” that were being tried across the country, drew contrasts in the legal architectures of the new systems, collected data and evaluation research for as many states as possible, and treated the reform-active states as “laboratories” whose …

Fairness Writ Large Or Writ Small In International Criminal Justice, Nancy Combs

FIU Law Review

This article highlights the various, sometimes competing conceptions of fairness in international criminal law.

6. Mark: Sources And References, Matthew Lipman

Secondary School Curriculum

This sequential bibliography matches the 1980 edition of Mark page by page. It contains both sources—works that influenced Matthew Lipman in writing the novel—and references to philosophical works he and Ann Margaret Sharp recommend to explore the novels’ philosophical themes.

The Dangers Of Denying Prosecutorial Independence: Wrongful Convictions, Official Misconduct, And Public Corruption, Meagan R. Hurley

Articles

In recent years, desires to limit prosecutorial discretion have become the focus of a national dialogue on the authority of the elected officials, allegations of their misconduct, and the need for stronger accountability measures. Legislatures across the country have considered a slew of bills aimed at diminishing prosecutorial power by prohibiting “progressive” office policies, creating oversight commissions, and promulgating simplified processes to recall or remove prosecutors entirely. In various jurisdictions, those proposals are now coming to fruition. While heightened scrutiny for some of the legal system’s most powerful leaders may seem attractive, an analysis of national trends aimed at curtailing …

Concealed Carry And The Right To Self Defense In Missouri, Andrew Stafford Ii

Law Student Works

Firearm regulation, both nationally and in Missouri, sits at the center of ongoing constitutional debate and evolving public policy. Missouri’s legal landscape reflects a significant shift over the past two decades. The state moved from a traditional permit-based concealed carry system to a broad permitless carry framework that allows most adults to carry concealed firearms without a permit. This shift follows major developments in federal Second Amendment case law, including District of Columbia v. Heller, McDonald v. Chicago, and New York State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n v. Bruen, as well as Missouri’s 2014 constitutional amendment requiring courts to evaluate restrictions …

Presumed Guilt: Epistemic Closure In Pregnancy Prosecutions, M. Eve Hanan

Scholarly Works

Criminal law and reproductive justice scholars are calling attention to the increase in prosecutions for pregnancy outcomes in the United States. Trace amounts of controlled substances in newborns are prosecuted as child abuse. Miscarriages are prosecuted as illegal abortions or homicides. This area of criminal law existed side-by-side with Roe v. Wade for late-term pregnancy outcomes. The Dobbs decision has further emboldened these prosecutions by removing the protections of the Due Process Clause from the pre-viability phase of the pregnancy.

Using a case study of a woman who was pressured to plead guilty to manslaughter and sentenced to eight years …

Unpunishment Purposes, Meredith B. Esser

Scholarly Works

Sentencing scholarship often begins by exploring the traditional purposes of punishment: deterrence, retribution, incapacitation, and rehabilitation. However, little scholarship exists addressing how these four punishment purposes apply in the post sentencing or second-look contexts. Further, abstract theories of sentencing can often seem sterile and disconnected from the realities of how violent, disproportionate, and dehumanizing the actual experience of incarceration is for many people, and tend to downplay the impact of incarceration on the families and communities of those who are incarcerated. This Article attempts to reconceptualize the traditional purposes of punishment to meet the current historical moment, and it does …

Ecarrots: Prison Control And Profits From Correctional Tablets, Justin Iverson

Scholarly Works

In recent years, tablets have gained tremendous popularity behind bars for their ability to expand access to educational and rehabilitative services for people in prison. However, there are downsides to tablet implementation, including high costs at the expense of a captive population and shifting power dynamics resulting in possible volatility. This Article examines the use of correctional tablets in jails and prisons as mechanisms for administrative control and profit-making in an era of beleaguered correctional budgets. It also considers legal and policy implications related to the disproportionately negative impact of the introduction of tablets on people in poverty, increased dependency …

Restorative Justice And Building Communities Of Radical Belonging In The Law School Classroom, Aparna Polavarapu

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Volume 48 Masthead, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Volume 48 Masthead

Voting Matters: Materiality Considerations And The Shareholder Vote, Renee M. Jones

Seattle University Law Review

For the shareholder franchise to have meaning, shareholders must have access to relevant information to inform their voting decisions. The securities laws’ disclosure requirements play an essential role in informing the shareholder vote.

This Essay focuses on the question of the materiality of information in the context of shareholder voting. It addresses the question of whether ESG-related information is material, positioning the materiality inquiry within the context of shareholders’ voting decisions. It explores the definition of materiality with a focus on the “reasonable investor” concept embedded within the definition. The Essay argues that the implicit expectations of many commentators that …

Volume 48 Masthead, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Volume 48 Masthead

Understanding The Big Three’S Wavering Support Of Environmental And Social Shareholder Proposals, Jeff Schwartz, Jefferson Jensen

Seattle University Law Review

Because of their substantial equity portfolios, BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street (the Big 3) are central players in corporate governance. It is, therefore, critical to understand how they vote. One puzzle is that their support for shareholder proposals on environmental and social matters appears to waiver. In 2020, for instance, BlackRock supported 11.1% of environmental proposals at S&P 500 firms. In 2021, it seemingly reversed course, supporting 55.2%. It then flipped again, supporting 32.1% in 2022. Such statistics suggest that the Big 3 are constantly changing their views on these topics. This Article seeks to better understand whether this is …

Volume 48 Masthead, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Volume 48 Masthead

Error In The Loop: How Human Mistakes Can Improve Algorithmic Learning, Ryan W. Copus, Cait Spackman, Hannah Laqueur

Faculty Works

Algorithms often outperform humans in making decisions, in large part because they are more consistent. Despite this, there remains widespread demand to keep a “human in the loop” to address concerns about fairness and transparency. Although evidence suggests that most human overrides are errors, we argue these errors can provide value: they generate new data from which algorithms can learn. To remain accurate, algorithms must be updated over time, but data generated solely from algorithmic decisions is biased, including only cases selected by the algorithm (e.g., individuals released on parole). Training on this algorithmically selected data can significantly reduce predictive …

Curb Their Enthusiasm: Controlling The Discretion Of Creative Prosecutors, Scott Schumacher

Articles

On January 6, 2021, a mob of supporters of then-president Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol Building to disrupt the certification by Congress of the presidential election. Joseph Fischer was a member of that mob, and he was one of the individuals who forced his way into the Capitol Building. He was charged with multiple criminal counts, including obstruction of an official proceeding, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1512(c) for allegedly attempting to delay Congress’ election certification. In Fischer v. United States, the United States Supreme Court reversed the obstruction charge, holding that section 1512(c) did not apply to …

An Eye For An Eye Makes A Vigilant Society, Liam C. Preyer

Capstone Showcase

Vigilantism is one of the oldest practices of mankind; for as long as there have been moral and legal laws to govern us and live by, there have been individuals who have sought justice outside these systems. Vigilantism is the response to failures in the justice system, and in the United States in particular, we have seen examples from the Western Frontier to the modern-day digital landscape. This paper will explore the nature of vigilante justice through historical, psychological, media-driven, legal, and digital lenses. We will explore how cultural narratives, media influences, government actions, and psychological motivations have shaped the …

The Authenticity Trap: Political Deepfakes And The Limits Of Current Regulation, Akriti Gaur

National Law School of India Review

This paper examines the emerging regulatory challenge posed by political deepfakes, with a particular focus on India’s 2024 elections and the legal responses that followed. It argues that regulatory responses that directly prohibit or remove political speech risk collapsing questions of authenticity into questions of legality. Using India as the central case study, and drawing comparative lessons from recent developments in the United States, the paper argues for a regulatory approach focused less on banning synthetic political content and more on provenance, disclosures, and institutional preparedness. Deepfake regulation, if poorly designed, risks strengthening state control over political discourse. The paper …

‘What Can A Comma Do?’: Re-Examining Victorian Criminalisation Of Obscenity Through The Flawed Interlinking Of ‘Decency Or Morality’ Under The Strain Of Modern Liberal Consciousness, Ratika Gaur

National Law School of India Review

This paper argues that the rhetorical nature of India’s post-independence obscenity jurisprudence stems from the interlinking of two distinct (behavioural v. normative) categories into the singular provision of ‘decency or morality’ under Article 19(2). This interlinking emerged amidst the socio-economic and cultural upheavals in Victorian England, wherein moral anxieties around the ‘visibility’ of obscenity reflected a crisis of political obligation within the modern liberal consciousness. Operating through the logic of deterrence, this consciousness criminalized obscenity due to its ideationally incapacity to accommodate liminal expressions—acts that were neither neatly civil, nor outright criminal, even when offensive. In this regard, one substantive …

Guilty Until Proven Innocent: An Analysis Of Racial Disparities In Civil Asset Forfeiture Seizures, Kelsey O'Callaghan

Mitchell Hamline Law Journal of Public Policy and Practice

No abstract provided.

Consensus And Conflict Over Context: Select Criminal Law And Procedure Cases From The Supreme Court's 2024-25 Term, Eve Brensike Primus, Elena Schultz

Articles

In its 2024-2025 Term, the Supreme Court emphasized the utility—and necessity—of context-based, fact-sensitive analyses throughout its criminal law and procedure cases. Though the Justices sparred over how to derive meaning from factual, structural, legal, and historical contexts, they tended to agree that courts should not be artificially restricted from considering the breadth of the record before them.