Law Commons^™

Analysis Of The Impacts Of Propositions 41 And 42 On California Public Finance, David Gamage, Brian D. Galle, Darien Shanske

Faculty Publications

This memorandum discusses the possible collateral damage that Propositions 41 and 42 (on the ballot in California on November 3, 2026) might cause.  The two propositions were concocted very quickly by billionaires in order to trick voters that will vote for Proposition 40 (the billionaire tax) also to vote for these propositions that are designed to undermine the billionaire tax.

The basic trick is that these propositions have plausible seeming veneers but hide a poison pill that aims to frustrate the functioning of the billionaire tax.  The veneers are “plausible seeming” because they address problems that are not problems.  For …

Faculty List

Journal of Dispute Resolution

No abstract provided.

Masthead

Journal of Dispute Resolution

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents

Journal of Dispute Resolution

No abstract provided.

Symposium Introduction: Artificial Intelligence, Real Attorneys, And The Art Of Lawyering: Utilizing The Tools Of Ai To Enhance, Not Inhibit, Our Humanity, Carli N. Conklin

Journal of Dispute Resolution

In recent years, legal academia has seen a proliferation of symposia and conferences focused on the interrelationship between the increasing prevalence and sophistication of artificial intelligence, and the opportunities and challenges AI provides for our work in legal teaching, legal research and writing, and the practice of law. Here at the University of Missouri Center for the Study of Dispute Resolution and Journal of Dispute Resolution, we could not help but think about the rise of artificial intelligence in the practice of law through a dispute resolution lens. More specifically, we became increasingly curious about the unfolding interplay between artificial …

The Limits Of Disclosure: Artificial Intelligence, Arbitration, And The Illusion Of Informed Consent, Rishi Batra

Journal of Dispute Resolution

Consider the following scenario: A warehouse worker brings a wage and hour claim against her employer under her state's labor code. Her employment contract, which she signed on her first day of work, contains a mandatory arbitration clause that she did not negotiate, did not fully read, and — like most employees in her situation — did not fully understand. An arbitrator is appointed, a hearing is held, and an award is issued in the employer's favor several weeks later, denying the employee's claims entirely. The award is well-organized and internally consistent, addressing each of the worker's claims with what …

A Decade Of Change: Technology’S Impact On Negotiation Deepens In The Age Of Ai, Noam Ebner

Journal of Dispute Resolution

When people consider the notion of negotiation changing, they tend to look first toward that magnificent negotiation construct, “the table.” Here are some immediately apparent areas of table-novelty: • There is often a screen on our table, rather than another person sitting across from us. • The table we “go” to negotiate at is not in our office or that of our counterpart; rather, it is a communications system such as email or an online platform developed by a third-party provider. • The table, in its online-platform form, sometimes structures process and facilitates communication in ways that our trusty old …

Artificial Intelligence, Real Humans, And The Art Of Lawyering: Reflections From Practice, Jenna Homeyer

Journal of Dispute Resolution

René Descartes famously stated, “I think, therefore I am.” As artificial intelligence (“AI”) increases in prevalence throughout society and the field of law, we might ask ourselves, who are we if we allow AI to think for us? This symposium began with a question about the interplay between artificial intelligence and the human skills present in the art of lawyering. After using AI in my legal practice for the past two and half years, I can attest that there remains a very human skill set that is necessary to the art of good or effective lawyering. AI can be a …

Rps Mediator Coachbuilder, John Lande

Journal of Dispute Resolution

Instructions for AI Tool

Using Ai Centaur Systems To Strengthen Professional Judgment, John Lande

Journal of Dispute Resolution

This article encourages dispute resolution practitioners to use artificial intelligence (AI) “centaur” systems, which may perform better than either humans or AI tools operating independently. Centaur systems combine human and AI capabilities so that each contributes complementary strengths in decision-making. This is particularly important in managing legal disputes, where practitioners should integrate analysis of legal issues, tangible and intangible costs, strategic judgment, and ethical considerations.

The Life And Work Of Odr Visionary And Architect Colin Rule (So Far), John Lande

Journal of Dispute Resolution

Many people know Colin Rule as a pioneer of online dispute resolution. Fewer people probably appreciate the full breadth of his contributions over the last three decades. This article reviews Rule’s work as a builder of dispute resolution systems, writer, educator, entrepreneur, and institutional leader. It highlights recurring themes in his career and scholarship, including trust, fairness, usability, access to justice, and the need to keep human judgment at the center of technological innovation.

Cooling Conflict: Embedding Mediation Protocols In Data Center Land Sale Contracts, Allison Elias

Journal of Dispute Resolution

Imagine a two-thousand-acre plot of land in rural Louisiana being leveled to accommodate a 10 billion dollar data center. With the construction of this data center comes the destruction of a region inhabited by rich plant and animal life as well as 80,000 residents, a quarter of whom live below the poverty line. Alternatively, think of a $750 million data center being built next door to your home, causing sediment build-up in your water supply, water scarcity, light pollution, and destruction of neighboring forests. Unfortunately, one does not have to imagine these scenarios. Both stories come directly from recent news …

Reports Of Legal Writing’S Death Are Greatly Exaggerated: Why Generative Ai Will Not Kill The Craft, Jayne T. Woods

Journal of Dispute Resolution

In preparing for this essay, I typed the phrase “legal writing is” into Google to see how common searches finished the thought. The only completed thought to appear was “legal writing is hard.” Amen. Legal writing is an amalgamation of logical reasoning, cognitive psychology, classical rhetoric, legal terminology, legal citation, and proper grammar and style, all of which must result in a product accessible to readers of all education levels. When generative AI arrived, producing cogent, plausible legal prose in seconds, it led many to believe that writing, generally, and legal writing, specifically, had reached the end of days.

Mirror, Mirror On My Screen, Can You Feel Like A Human Being?, Lauren A. Newell

Journal of Dispute Resolution

We cannot go anywhere without encountering artificial intelligence (AI) these days. AI has infiltrated our phones, our cars, and our washing machines. It is with us in doctors’ offices, at the drive-through, and at sporting events. It has taken over our calendars and our inboxes and our videoconferences, and it would like to help us brush our teeth, too.

Justice After Atrocity: Lessons From Rwanda And Cambodia For Contemporary International Law And Conflict, Jennie Hubbard

Journal of Dispute Resolution

In the aftermath of mass atrocity, the question facing survivors and policymakers is not whether societies will rebuild but how rebuilding will address truth, justice, and memory. Modern transitional justice systems trace institutional and normative roots to the post—World War II order, most famously embodied by the Nuremberg Trials, which first established that individuals could be held accountable for crimes against humanity. Nuremberg did more than punish Nazi officials; it articulated a legal and moral principle that the international community could, and sometimes must, assert jurisdiction to address mass crimes when domestic systems fail. Despite that precedent, global reactions to …

Beyond City Limits: Access To Adr And Child Client-Directed Counsel In Missouri’S Rural Family Courts, Reghan Matlock

Journal of Dispute Resolution

Reba McEntire once sang, “Don’t trust your soul to no backwoods southern lawyer”—a warning that still echoes in today’s debates about rural justice and representation. The catchy murder ballad captures a story driven by dramatic family ties and a broken justice system. While the song exaggerates for effect, it taps into a realistic concern: an existing divide in access to justice between rural and urban communities. This divide impacts all areas of law, including family law—where concerns about confidentiality and privacy are heightened because small communities make it difficult to shield sensitive matters from public view. The divide is troubling, …

Reforming Mediation: The Hidden Inequities Shaped By Race, Gender, And Power, Victoria Seever

Journal of Dispute Resolution

Courts and policymakers often promote family dispute resolution as a faster, less adversarial alternative to traditional litigation. Yet for many women of color, the mediation table often replicates the same racial and gender power imbalances that the legal system claims to mitigate. Family Dispute Resolution (“FDR”) often fails women of color by reinforcing racialized and gendered power imbalances. Alternative dispute resolution (“ADR”), especially mediation, presents both an opportunity and a risk in divorce, custody, and intimate partner violence (“IPV”) cases. IPV cases become especially difficult with the various laws in different states that govern how mediation should be used and …

Is The Vice Presidency In Decline?, Roy E. Brownell Ii

Missouri Law Review

During the first four years of Dick Cheney’s vice presidency (2001–2005), the second office reached dizzying heights. His next term and the ensuing vice presidency of Joe Biden (2009–2017) witnessed a reduction in the office’s executive-branch prestige, influence, and accomplishments and a return to earlier modern norms. Afterwards, the vice presidencies of Mike Pence and Kamala Harris saw an additional decline, and the first fifteen months of JD Vance’s tenure do not seem to have reversed this trend. Is the office suffering from long-term decline, or is it merely experiencing an extended bump in the road?

Copyright

Missouri Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Future Of Intercollegiate Athletics: Is It Legally Attainable And Financially Sustainable, Brian Krumm

Missouri Law Review

The House v. NCAA settlement marks a historic shift in college athletics, fundamentally altering the financial relationship between student-athletes and universities. Approved in June 2025, the $2.8 billion settlement resolves antitrust claims against the NCAA, allowing schools to directly compensate athletes through revenue-sharing agreements. This decision follows years of legal battles over student-athlete compensation, particularly regarding restrictions on name, image, and likeness (“NIL”) earnings. The settlement introduces new financial models, enabling Division I programs to allocate up to 22% of athletic revenue, roughly $20.5 million annually, for athlete compensation. While this benefits high-revenue sports like football and basketball, it also …

Jurisdiction Fiction: Is International Shoe Due For A Pennoyer Moment? Part I, Peter B. Rutledge, E. Reed Lemasters, Caleb Z. Morris

Missouri Law Review

Personal jurisdiction doctrine is a mess. In an attempt to clarify personal jurisdiction doctrine, the Supreme Court has routinely obscured its underlying rationale. That rationale predates the Court’s landmark decision in Pennoyer v. Neff and continues to loom in the background of the most recent post-International Shoe cases. Instead of laying bare that rationale, the doctrine has devolved into a string of proxies built upon proxies—all laboring mightily to avoid stating the obvious: State authority lies at the heart of all personal jurisdiction inquiries. From “physical presence” to “minimum contacts” to “targeting” to “effects” to “relatedness,” all fictions strive to …

Look What You Made Me Do: Common-Sense Inferences About Independent Decision-Makers In Standing Law, Eli Bartz

Missouri Law Review

On a rainy evening in 2009, John Coomer was sitting behind the visitor’s dugout at Kauffman Stadium. Between innings, Coomer looked at the scoreboard, and the Kansas City Royals’ mascot Sluggerrr threw a hot dog into the stands, hitting Coomer in the eye and detaching his retina. Coomer sued the Royals for negligence, but the jury found in the Royals’ favor. The Missouri Supreme Court overturned the jury verdict, holding that, while spectators assume the risks of balls and bats flying into the stands, they do not assume the risk of flying hot dogs. The ruling sparked controversy, with one …

Neither Here Nor There: The Small Business Creditor’S Discharge Nightmare Under Subchapter V, Kathleen Zimmerman

Missouri Law Review

A courtroom victory feels sweet, with damages finally awarded after long, exhausting litigation—until small business bankruptcy bounces the check. In 2015, a father and son duo began their small business in rural Wisconsin. They had started their company by selling drinking glasses made fully in the USA, crafted by hand in the family workshop. Years later, a competing company began selling imitations imported from China and falsely marketed as American-made. The knockoff products undercut the duo’s market, placing the family business in distress. The father-son team sued and were able to secure a verdict in their favor for willful and …

Faculty List

Missouri Law Review

No abstract provided.

Masthead

Missouri Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Varying Strength Of Parental Rights, Mark Strasser

Missouri Law Review

The United States Supreme Court has recognized that parental rights implicate fundamental interests and that statutes adversely affecting those rights require close examination. However, the Court has been inconsistent in both its analysis and results when deciding which statutes burdening parental rights nonetheless pass constitutional muster. The Court’s ambivalence and lack of clarity have made parental rights jurisprudence confused and confusing, as illustrated by the dissensus among the state supreme courts regarding which visitation statutes are constitutional. Yet, this jurisprudential quagmire cannot be blamed on one particular decision, as if a single clarification or modification could resolve the problem. Rather, …

Deliberate Indifference Reimagined: Towards An Objective Standard For Eighth Amendment Prison Condition Violations, Lane Hines Woodke

Missouri Law Review

This Article critiques the existing standard for establishing deliberate indifference under the Eighth Amendment, which primarily relies on the subjective intent of correctional officials. It argues for a shift towards an objective standard that assesses the reasonableness of state responses to known risks, particularly in light of persistent unconstitutional conditions within correctional facilities, such as inadequate living conditions and unchecked violence. The Article contends that the current subjective approach creates an insurmountable evidentiary burden for incarcerated individuals and fails to ensure meaningful compliance with constitutional protections. By advocating for an objective framework akin to standards used in Fourth and Fourteenth …

The Politics Of Preservation: Federal Implications Of The Smithsonian Executive Order, Autumn H. Duncan

Missouri Law Review

When society thinks of the phrase “revisionist history,” George Orwell’s harrowing words likely come to mind. The term itself is used in the political realm as “an accusation of deliberately distorting irrefutable historical ‘facts’ to serve a particular political agenda or viewpoint.” Although the topic of revisionism is a hot-button issue among historians and non-historians alike, Americans are divided over how to approach history. About 47% of the population believes that history should question the nation’s past, while 53% contend that history should celebrate it. This divide becomes even more evident when broken down by party lines: 84% of Republicans …

Product Liability In The Digital Age: A Flexible Framework For Categorizing Technology After Ameer V. Lyft, Andrew Jensen

Missouri Law Review

A single line of code can now cause a car crash, deny a loan, or—as in the case of Ameer v. Lyft—contribute to a man’s death. Traditional product liability law, born in the era of smokestacks and assembly lines, still assumes that only tangible things can be defective products. When software replaces machinery and algorithms make life-or-death decisions, courts face a question: can code itself be a defective product? The answer matters enormously. If courts decline to treat mass-marketed applications as “products,” victims of dangerous software may be left without recourse. On the other hand, if they expand liability too …

An Unnecessary Burden: Why It Is Time To Eliminate Mcdonnell Douglas From Ada Failure-To-Accommodate Claims, Jonathan G. Jain

Missouri Law Review

Several strangers sit together in a room, staring at three black lines on a white card. Their task seems simple: choose the line that matches the length of a line printed on a second card. One by one, the strangers correctly choose the matching line, and the task repeats with new white cards and new black lines. The correct answer is always obvious, but after a few rounds, one man suddenly finds himself alone in giving the correct response. What he does not know is that the others have been instructed to begin choosing incorrect lines. Eventually, despite what his …