Law Commons^™

Considering Caretakers: An Explicit Argument For Downward Departures During Federal Sentencing Mitigation For Caretakers Of Children, Danielle Sparber Bukacheski

University of Miami Law Review

The sentencing stage of the federal legal system provides defendants with an opportunity to articulate why the sentencing judge is justified in imposing less severe sentences. Yet, under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, sentencing judges have been restricted in the characteristics and background information that can be utilized when imposing a downward departure from the recommended Guidelines sentence. More specifically, there is great variability regarding the extent to which family-related circumstances can be utilized as justification for a downward departure due to the Sentencing Commission’s ambiguous language. Considering the damaging effects of incarceration on children when a caretaker is physically removed …

Juvenile Justice & Diminished Criminal Culpability, Mitchell F. Crusto

University of Miami Law Review

When regulating the bad, albeit illegal, choices made by minors, the law is conflicted. On the one hand, we have a clear national policy to ensure the safety of and to promote the positive development of our young people, yet we simultaneously criminalize minors who make bad choices. This conundrum raises a quintessential jurisprudential flaw in our legal system: We lack a unifying, overarching principle that guides the law’s relationship with minors. In a companion piece, I pose and explore such a unifying principle, which I coin as the “best interest of the minor” standard (“BIMS”). Consequently, this Article applies …

No Flash Photography Please: An Analysis Of Corporate Use Of Street Art Under Section 120(A) Of The Awcpa, Sierra Epke

University of Miami Law Review

Street art and graffiti are pervasive artforms found throughout the world and throughout history. While the artforms have been associated with crime and vandalism in the past, they have increasingly been featured in different capacities from art galleries to corporate marketing campaigns. With street art’s growing recognition and popularity, corporations have begun to use the medium to target new customer bases. In some situations, the use of artwork in marketing campaigns is unsanctioned by the artist. Therefore, courts have now begun to examine the balance between copyright protection for street artists and the corporate use of street art. Section 120(a) …

Understanding Cyber Risk: Unpacking And Responding To Cyber Threats Facing The Public And Private Sectors, Lawrence J. Trautman, Scott Shackelford, Brian Elzweig, Peter Ormerod

University of Miami Law Review

Cyberattacks, data breaches, and ransomware continue to pose major threats to businesses, governments, and health and educational institutions worldwide. Ongoing successful instances of cybercrime involve sophisticated attacks from diverse sources such as organized crime syndicates, actors engaged in industrial espionage, nation-states, and even lone wolf actors having relatively few resources. Technological innovation continues to outpace the ability of U.S. law to keep pace, though other jurisdictions including the European Union have been more proactive. Nation-state and international criminal group ransomware attacks continue; Sony’s systems were hacked by a ransomware group; MGM Resorts disclosed that recovery from their September 2023 hack …

Anti-Antisemitism Now, Lili Levi

University of Miami Law Review

On May 25, 2023, the Biden Administration released The U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism—America’s first national strategy of this kind. In early November 2023, the White House announced the establishment of the first-ever U.S. National Strategy to Counter Islamophobia. These historic commitments respond to increases in identity-based bias incidents and expression against Jews and Muslims. Antisemitic incidents, which were already rising even before the pandemic, increased by almost 400% since the start of the Israel-Hamas war. The war also triggered a sharp upturn in Islamophobic incidents in the U.S., including the shooting of three college students and …

Energy Justice And Renewable Rikers, Rebecca Bratspies

University of Miami Law Review

Unsustainable energy practices generate the lion’s share of global carbon emissions as well as staggering levels of deadly particulate pollution. Replacing the current dirty, fossil fuel-based system with affordable, clean energy is both a human rights imperative and a climate change necessity. This transition, which has already begun, creates the opportunity to do things differently. By confronting the structural racism embedded in existing energy structures, we can build a just transition rather than just a transition. This Article uses New York City’s Renewable Rikers project as a case study to explore how we might take advantage of the intersections between …

The Underwater: Using Art To Engage Communities Around Climate Action, Xavier Cortada

University of Miami Law Review

This Article delves into the intersection of art and environmental activism, with a focus on the impact of climate change. Cortada, both an artist and trained attorney, re-counts his three-decade journey leveraging art to inspire community engagement and address social and environmental challenges. He explains how Antarctic researchers made him aware of South Florida's vulnerability to sea level rise, leading to the development of interactive art projects that foster civic engagement and climate advocacy. The Article also addresses the challenges posed by climate denial and misinformation, emphasizing the need for creative strategies to combat these issues.

Cortada introduces specific participatory …

‘Rounding Up’ Roundup: One Last Hope For Glyphosate Regulation, Gabrielle Argimón-Cartaya

University of Miami Law Review

Since 1974, Bayer’s Roundup remains the world’s most popular herbicide and pervades United States farmland and food production. However, in 2015, Roundup landed centerstage in an international and presently unsettled debate over whether its active ingredient, glyphosate, causes cancer. Environmental groups regularly call for the de-registration of glyphosate due to the plethora of ailments, ecological harm, and weed resistance resulting from glyphosate use. Dissenting experts, however, believe that strict bans would devastate agriculture because of global dependence and the lack of any popular alternatives. Faced with mounting litigation, silence from the highest court, and unreliable regulators, Bayer continues to effect …

Evolving Legal Conceptions Of “Energy Communities”, Uma Outka

University of Miami Law Review

The concept of “energy communities” has had long-standing and evolving significance in the United States and in other countries around the world. Under the Biden Administration, the term “energy communities” has acquired new legal meanings that differ by context and continue to evolve. This Article traces the shifting meaning of “energy communities” and examines how it relates to other dominant references to “communities” in the context of energy law and policy, including environmental justice, low-income, underserved, and disadvantaged communities, as well as newer community-scale energy system innovations, such as community solar or “advanced energy communities.” International comparisons, such as with …

Public Health Impacts And Intra-Urban Forced Displacement Due To Climate Gentrification In The Greater Miami Area—Community Lawyering For Environmental Justice And Equitable Development, Theresa Pinto, Abigail Fleming, Sabrina Payoute, Elissa Klein

University of Miami Law Review

Because Miami-Dade County is “ground zero” for such climate effects as sea-level rise and increasingly hazardous, climate-driven Atlantic hurricanes, the coral rock ridge that runs along the Eastern coast of South Florida is a prime target for redevelopment and “climate” gentrification. Through a community and movement lawyering for environmental justice approach, we partnered with local community organizations to contribute to the ongoing work of community-driven equitable development. In partnership, we developed an environmental public health study to understand and document the public health effects on disadvantaged communities in Miami-Dade County from forced intra-urban displacement due to redevelopment that is being …