Law Commons^™

Tech Oligarchs And Corporate Vigilantism, Joao Marinotti, Asaf Lubin

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Big Tech’s unchecked power has evolved from a regulatory crisis into one concerning the rule of law itself. Shielded by the First Amendment, Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, corporate law, and contract law, technology giants have circumvented traditional government oversight, amassing a level of power that eclipses even that of some sovereign states. No longer guided by cautious boards of directors, today’s tech empires are often ruled by impulsive billionaire CEOs, who, through a single policy change or algorithmic tweak, can upend individual rights, destabilize global markets, and erode democratic governance itself.

The scale of such dangers …

The Extension Of The Arbitration Clause To Non-Signatories In Qatar's Construction Arbitration: A Study Under Law No. 2 Of 2017, Nazir Hasen Ikhlayel

Maurer Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines whether an arbitration clause in a construction contract governed by Qatar Arbitration Law No. 2 of 2017 can be extended to a non-signatory party. The study addresses a problem that arises in major construction projects, in which employers, main contractors, subcontractors, consultants, and suppliers are linked by separate yet interdependent contracts. At the same time, arbitration remains structured around bilateral consent.

The importance of the study lies in its relevance to Qatar’s legal and economic development. Qatar’s major infrastructure projects, including those accelerated by the 2022 FIFA World Cup and those continuing under Qatar National Vision 2030, …

Does Climate Disclosure Work To Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions? Emerging Evidence Suggests Cautious Optimism., Cynthia A. Williams

Articles by Maurer Faculty

The purpose of this Article is to bring some of the emerging empirical literature evaluating the effects of required greenhouse gas (GHG) disclosure to bear on discussions of disclosure as a mechanism to address climate change. Since disclosure has become such a significant part of global efforts to address climate change, whether it has the effects in fact that are attributed to it in theory is properly subject to interrogation.   In this Article, several interrelated questions will be discussed. First, what does the empirical evidence show about the effects of required (GHG) disclosures on emissions? What mechanisms are engaged in …

The Hidden Power Of Citizenship: Political Identity In The Twilight Zone Of Equal Protection, Charles J. Anderson

Indiana Law Journal

More than half a century ago, in the landmark case of Graham v. Richardson, the Supreme Court held that the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment prohibits state-level blanket exclusions of noncitizens. That case ushered in a new rule: State classifications based on alienage are “inherently suspect” and subject to strict scrutiny. But Graham’s rule has a major exception. Just a few years after Graham was decided, the Court upheld several state laws excluding noncitizens from working as police officers, public school teachers, and probation officers. So was created what would later be termed “political function” doctrine. …

Rethinking Objectivity: The Problem Of Pretext In The Fourth Amendment, Monu S. Bedi

Indiana Law Journal

Pretextual encounters continue to erode the legitimacy of the Supreme Court’s Fourth Amendment jurisprudence. Simply put, a police officer can act on personal bias or animus as long as the search or seizure is deemed “objectively reasonable.” Numerous scholars (e.g., Bennett Capers, Gabriel Chin, and David Harris) have critiqued this objective standard, contending it perpetuates discriminatory practices, particularly against communities of color. The late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg herself suggested that the Court might need to reconsider the legal precedent she helped establish. More recently, Orin Kerr has also argued that the Court’s reliance on objective determinations is inconsistent with …

The Addison C. Harris Lecture: Intellectual Diversity Mandates And The Freedom To Teach, Keith E. Whittington

Indiana Law Journal

This Essay provides the first examination of the Indiana Senate Bill 202, which was adopted into law in the spring of 2024. The new law imposes an “intellectual diversity” mandate on public university classroom teaching in the state. The law is novel in its approach but is part of a larger movement to intercede in what is taught in university classrooms. The intellectual diversity mandate raises difficult and unexamined conceptual, normative, and practical problems that will now demand attention from university officials in Indiana and that might soon confront university administrators in other states across the country if the Indiana …

The Plight Of Workers: Alj Independence In Arkansas Workers’ Compensation, P. Brock Hatfield

Indiana Law Journal

“Unfortunately, many of the changes made by this act were necessary because administrative law judges, the Workers’ Compensation Commission, and the Arkansas courts have continually broadened the scope and eroded the purpose of the workers’ compensation statutes of this state. . . . In the future, if [changes must be made to Arkansas workers’ compensation law], those things shall be addressed by the General Assembly and should not be done by administrative law judges, the Workers’ Compensation Commission, or the courts.”¹It would be hard to imagine a blunter statement of purpose to undermine the independence of administrative law …

Encampments And Property Law, Terry Skolnik

Indiana Law Journal

Although encampments have become increasingly common, they remain under-theorized, especially in the field of property law. Homeless encampments are ubiquitous in many cities. Social movements—such as Occupy Wall Street, the Freedom Convoy Movement, and college campus protests related to the war in Gaza—involve encampments that aim to catalyze social change. Yet surprisingly, legal scholars have devoted relatively little attention to encampments. This is a major oversight. Encampments matter for a range of moral, philosophical, and legal reasons that are hiding in plain sight and generate important theoretical and practical consequences that require deeper scrutiny.

This Article aims to fill this …

Representation In Removal Proceedings, Emily Ryo, Ian Peacock, Weston Ley, Christopher Levesque

Indiana Law Journal

Millions of immigrants in the United States are facing threats of mass deportation under the second Trump Administration. At the same time, the Administration has sought to end federal programs aimed at providing basic information and guidance to immigrants in removal proceedings. In addition, large numbers of immigration judges have been fired from immigration courts that already face massive backlogs. Amidst these upheavals, deportation defense lawyers have come to occupy a more central role than ever in ensuring fairness and due process in immigration courts. Are certain groups of immigrants more likely to obtain legal representation than others? Among those …

Systemically Valuable Transaction Costs, Mitchell C. Johnston

Indiana Law Journal

Ronald Coase’s famous theorem tells us that in a world without transaction costs, legal entitlements would be distributed efficiently. It is often treated as a corollary of the Coase Theorem that reductions in transaction costs generate increases in welfare as barriers to efficiency-increasing transactions fall. To be sure, not all voluntary transactions are efficiency increasing (for example, some transactions create negative externalities). In such cases, scholars have noted that transaction costs may inhibit socially inefficient transactions. But the situation is more complex. Drawing on ideas from systems theory, this Article advances a more complete theory of when transaction costs support …

Vol. 70, No. 9 (March 9, 2026)

Indiana Law Annotated

No abstract provided.

Vol. 70, No. 8 (March 2, 2026)

Indiana Law Annotated

No abstract provided.

The Brave New World Of Judicial Election, Charles G. Geyh

Articles by Maurer Faculty

The 2023 Wisconsin Supreme Court election heralded the arrival of a new generation of judicial races in which state supreme courts are becoming war-torn forums for the resolution of deeply divisive policy questions that the federal courts and the other branches of government are unwilling or unable to address. It is a development that portends to be of unprecedented intensity, relative to the fractious “new politics of judicial elections” of the recent past and poses new challenges for legal theory and the existing judicial elections literature to explain. It adds new urgency to an increasingly stark choice: fight for the …

Vol. 70, No. 7 (February 23, 2026)

Indiana Law Annotated

No abstract provided.

Vol. 70, No. 6 (February 16, 2026)

Indiana Law Annotated

No abstract provided.

Vol. 70, No. 5 (February 9, 2026)

Indiana Law Annotated

No abstract provided.

Vol. 70, No. 4 (February 2, 2026)

Indiana Law Annotated

No abstract provided.

Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program Offering Free Tax Assistance Through March 24, James Owsley Boyd

Keep Up With the Latest News from the Law School (blog)

Qualifying local taxpayers will again have help navigating federal and state tax returns this spring, as the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program returns to the Indiana University Maurer School of Law.

Both U.S. and certain international taxpayers are eligible to utilize the free services, which will run on Mondays and Tuesdays from 6:30–9:30 p.m. beginning January 26 and continuing through March 24. Services will be available on a first-come, first-served basis in Room 121 on the first floor of the Law School, located at 211 South Indiana Avenue in Bloomington.

Vol. 70, No. 3 (January 26, 2026)

Indiana Law Annotated

No abstract provided.

Prof. Andrew Hammond Appointed To Seventh Circuit Advisory Committee On Circuit Rules, James Owsley Boyd

Keep Up With the Latest News from the Law School (blog)

Andrew Hammond, Professor of Law and Harry T. Ice Faculty Fellow at Indiana University Maurer School of Law, has been appointed to the Advisory Committee on Circuit Rules for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.

“I am honored to serve on the Seventh Circuit’s Advisory Committee on Circuit Rules,” Hammond said. “My first job out of law school was clerking for then-Chief Judge Wood of the Seventh Circuit, and my experience working for her and later Judge Dow in the Northern District of Illinois helped shape how I think about federal practice and procedure. I am also …

Vol. 70, No. 2 (January 19, 2026)

Indiana Law Annotated

No abstract provided.

From Contracts To The College Football Playoffs: Stephen Harper’S Unlikely Path To Iu Athletics, James Owsley Boyd

Keep Up With the Latest News from the Law School (blog)

On Monday night, as the Indiana University football team takes the field with a national championship on the line, Stephen Harper ’11 will be where tens of thousands of IU alumni wish they could—on the sidelines of Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium.

For Harper, Indiana’s chief operating officer for athletics, the moment is the culmination of a journey that began far from packed stadiums and playoff spotlights. Before contract negotiations, NIL policy, and Big Ten championship trophies, Harper was a high school English teacher and basketball coach at Bloomington North High School.

The National Jurist Names Kellye Testy ’91 Most Influential Person In Legal Education, James Owsley Boyd

Keep Up With the Latest News from the Law School (blog)

The National Jurist has named Indiana University Maurer School of Law alumna Kellye Y. Testy ’91 the most influential person in legal education, placing her at the top of its annual list of the 25 most influential leaders in the field.

The ranking is based on a survey of law school deans nationwide. In explaining the methodology, The National Jurist noted that respondents were asked to identify individuals who “sparked new ideas, introduced reforms, inspired their peers, or pushed them to see their work differently.” The resulting list, the publication said, highlights leaders who are “moving the field forward and …

Vol. 70, No. 1 (January 12, 2026)

Indiana Law Annotated

No abstract provided.

Clemency For Justice Reform: A Restorative Pardon Proposal Using Conditional Pardons, Stephanie A. Clark

Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality

President Donald Trump’s pardons to people convicted for the January 6, 2021 attacks on the Capitol intensified the nation’s divisiveness. They also illustrate why proper clemency must be restored and used for its intended purpose to ameliorate injustice under the law. Clemency is not meant to be a “get out of jail free card” solely for family, friends, and political supporters. It is a constitutional mechanism designed to relieve consequences out of step with a criminal offense or to salve broad public hurt. When clemency is misused, it undermines public confidence and the principle that equal opportunity should exist for …

Incarcerated Persons’ Day In The Sun: Why Prisoners Should Have A Right To Fresh Air And Direct Sunlight, David Gross

Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality

One word sums up the current state of a prisoner’s rights to fresh air and direct sunlight: conditionality. Because the rights are conditional in the United States, the sword of litigation hangs above prisons while residents are subject to violations of their limited constitutional rights. International law and medical research respectively recognize the right to, and need for, outdoor recreation. However, the grueling deliberate indifference standard debilitates attempts to change this reality in the courthouse. Thus, the impetus of change must come from the expansion of statutory rights. The right to fresh air and direct sunlight can be energized …

A New Framework For Drug Pricing Law And Policy, Rachel E. Sachs

Indiana Law Journal

Scholars and policymakers have expressed concern about the impact of high prescription drug costs on patients and healthcare budgets. This Article presents a new theoretical framework for evaluating both the problem to be addressed by drug pricing reforms as well as the efficacy of potential solutions. In seeking to solve “the drug pricing problem,” our legal system has given primacy to competition rather than regulation to drive down drug prices. This Article disaggregates the broader concept of drug competition into four steps, each of which must be addressed and each of which elevates different institutional actors to key roles. In …

When Death Is Not Binary, Teneille R. Brown

Indiana Law Journal

There are few dichotomies more recognized than the one between life and death. Given the many legal rights that pivot on this distinction, one would think that the law has exceptionally clear standards for diagnosing death. It may surprise you then to learn that the line between legal life and death is no longer so obvious. That is, in a growing number of cases, there is now disagreement about whether someone is legally dead or alive. This is due to two things: the development of medical devices that can breathe for patients with severe brain injuries, and neuroimaging technology that …

The Fiduciary Game, Lauren R. Roth

Indiana Law Journal

Fiduciary duties are supposed to bridge the gap between public and private law. Private actors who engage in “public or quasi-public” functions (e.g., corporate directors and pension administrators) are often subject to fiduciary constraints to protect vulnerable parties who lack power in relationships with these actors. Recently, scholars have argued that both courts and legislatures have inappropriately expanded the use of fiduciary duties to purely private relationships. But what if the problem is not the expansion of fiduciary duties to private relationships, but the increasing delegation of public powers to private actors whose behavior cannot be adequately constrained by fiduciary …

Vice, Morality, And Immigration: Critiquing And Examining The Application Of Legal Moralism In The Criminalization Of Immigrants For Vice-Related Crimes, Sofia Garcia

Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality

No abstract provided.