Law Commons^™

Gold & Blue Law Edition, Fall 2023, St. Mary's University - San Antonio, Texas

Gold & Blue Law Edition

This is the Fall 2023 edition of Gold & Blue Law Edition which is St. Mary's University's official School of Law publication.

After The Criminal Justice System, Benjamin Levin

Washington Law Review

Since the 1960s, the “criminal justice system” has operated as the common label for a vast web of actors and institutions. But as critiques of mass incarceration have entered the mainstream, academics, activists, and advocates increasingly have stopped referring to the “criminal justice system.” Instead, they have opted for critical labels—the “criminal legal system,” the “criminal punishment system,” the “prison industrial complex,” and so on. What does this re-labeling accomplish? Does this change in language matter to broader efforts at criminal justice reform or abolition? Or does an emphasis on labels and language distract from substantive engagement with the injustices …

Taking The Long Road: The Excessive Fines Clause As A Tool For Protecting Washington's Unsheltered Population, Anna Ferron

Washington Law Review

Over the last decade, Washington State has seen a substantial increase in its unhoused population and an increase in laws that harm this group. Many of these laws subject unhoused and unsheltered people to fines, fees, and forfeitures that are exceedingly difficult for them to afford. The ExcessiveFinesClauses in the United States and Washington Constitutions protect citizens from fines deemed constitutionally excessive and could be used to shield unsheltered people from the burden of paying unjust fines they cannot afford. In City of Seattle v. Long, the Washington State Supreme Court analyzed the ability to pay of a person who …

Recent Developments: Belton V. State, Jayna Peterson

University of Baltimore Law Forum

No abstract provided.

Major Reforms To Probate In Maryland: Modernizing Laws Of Intestacy And Establishing Registered Domestic Partnerships, Byron E. Macfarlane

University of Baltimore Law Forum

No abstract provided.

Charging Children As Adults: The Case For Repealing Maryland’S Automatic Waiver Statute, Victoria Garner

University of Baltimore Law Forum

No abstract provided.

Law School Announcements 2023-2024, Law School Announcements Editors

Announcements

• Officers and Faculty
• The Law School - History
• Programs of Instruction
• Curriculum
• Student Activities and Organizations
• Funds and Endowments

Recent Developments: Comptroller Of Md. V. Fc-Gen Operations Inv., Llc, Kayla Hoffmaster

University of Baltimore Law Forum

No abstract provided.

Simplifying The Wipo Broadcasting Treaty: Proposed Amendments To The Third Revised Draft, Bernt Hugenholtz

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

In preparation of the 44^th meeting of the SCCR a Third Revised Draft Text for the WIPO Broadcasting Organizations Treaty was prepared by the SCCR Acting Chair. The current (third) draft contains mostly minor modifications as compared to the previous draft. The previous (second) revised draft was critically examined by the author of this document. The present document builds on the Comments by proposing amendments that transform the main points of criticism and suggestions for improvement into possible treaty language. Whereas – following the 2007 General Assembly decision – there is consensus within the SCCR that the Broadcasting Treaty …

Eco-Necrotourism And Public Land Management: Last Chance Tourism, Ecological Grief, And The World’S Disappearing Natural Wonders, Robin Kundis Craig, Katrina F. Kuh

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Last Chance Tourism. 500 Places to See Before They Disappear. 100 Places to Go Before They Disappear. As these (real) book titles attest, climate change, often in combination with loss of biodiversity, has created a new kind of ecotourism, which we term eco-necrotourism--the desire to see natural wonders and rare species before they are lost or transformed forever. As a scholarly topic, eco-necrotourism is a small facet of an emerging necessity for climate change law and policy: the need for planners, managers, lawmakers, and policy writers to consider human psychological responses to climate change and its impacts. However, those responses …

Redefining “No Evidence Of A Breach” In Election Security, Yunsieg P. Kim

SMU Law Review Forum

For legal purposes, we rightly understand the lack of evidence to mean a lack of existence. For example, many candidates in the 2022 elections baselessly claimed that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. But, absent evidence of systemic fraud, the law correctly determines that President Biden was duly elected. If the law entertained any outlandish assertion regardless of evidentiary support, accusers could peddle whatever claims they please, forcing the accused to disprove them. Similar to the legal understanding of “no evidence,” many appear to believe that no evidence of a security breach in our voting equipment indicates no breach. For …

Opinion: How Software Stifles Competition And Innovation, James Bessen

Faculty Scholarship

Innovation is not what it used to be, and software is part of the reason. In many industries—industries well beyond Big Tech—dominant firms have built large software-based platforms delivering important consumer benefits, but these platforms also slow the rise of innovative rivals, including productive startups.5 Because access to these platforms is limited, competition has been constrained, creating a troubling market dynamic that slows economic growth.

Taking Aim At New York's Concealed Carry Improvement Act, Leo Bernabei

Fordham Law Review

In June 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court held in New York State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n v. Bruen that New York’s requirement, which mandated that applicants for concealed carry licenses show proper cause for carrying a handgun in public, violated the Second and Fourteenth Amendments. Responding to the likely increase in individuals licensed to carry handguns in the state, New York enacted the Concealed Carry Improvement Act (CCIA). This law bans all firearms from many places of public congregation, establishes a default rule that firearms are not allowed on private property without the owner or lessee’s permission, and sets additional …

Proceedings At An Impasse: Appealing Fugitive Disentitlement Orders Of International Defendants Under The Collateral Order Doctrine, Parker Siegel

Fordham Law Review

The doctrine of fugitive disentitlement allows federal courts to decline to entertain a defendant’s claims when that defendant is deemed a fugitive from justice. Once disentitled, defendants cannot seek relief from the judicial system until they submit to the court’s jurisdiction. But complications emerge when federal district courts disentitle non–U.S. citizens who reside outside of the United States, who are indicted for alleged misconduct committed abroad, and who attempt to dismiss charges while remaining in their home countries. Federal circuit courts of appeals are split on whether such defendants can appeal from a fugitive disentitlement ruling without submitting to the …

Legal Considerations For Offering Metaverse-Based Education, Jon M. Garon

The Journal of Law and Education

No abstract provided.

Implicit Bias Against Asian Americans: A Blind Spot In The Harvard Admissions Case, Patrick Hornbeck

The Journal of Law and Education

No abstract provided.

Centering Disability In The Law School Pedagogy: A Way To Include Disabled Law Students, Ella Maiden

The Journal of Law and Education

No abstract provided.

Improving Public Schools: What Advocates Can Learn From Indian Education Rights, Breanna K. Bollig

The Journal of Law and Education

No abstract provided.

Evaluating The Effects Of Educational Attainment On Criminality And The Criminal Process, With A Focus On Federal Sentences Rendered And Recidivism Rates Student Note, Isabel Sink

The Journal of Law and Education

No abstract provided.

How To Not Be A Distraction: Universal Dress Codes Could Hold The Answer To South Carolina's Education System's Deficiencies Student Note, Elizabeth L. Tucker

The Journal of Law and Education

No abstract provided.

Nebraska Transcript (University Of Nebraska College Of Law), Fall 2023

Nebraska Transcript

Dean's message

Inclusive Leadership

Team earns $1M to bridge connections between history, civil rights

New student organizations highlight varied law student experiences

Inclusive Leadership Fellows guide 1L class 8 Bishop, ’92, named multicultural homecoming honoree

Mangram, ’24, named Inspire Scholarship Finalist

Student wellness initiatives expand

Ruiz, ’25, finds balance on and off the track

Advancing Justice Professor Danielle Jefferis: Protecting the Rights of the Incarcerated and Confined

Storer, ’17, works to combat human trafficking

2023 Strategic Plan Update

Inaugural Public Interest Scholars named

New clinic at Nebraska Law will defend First Amendment rights

Children’s Justice Clinic receives grant from Women …

Impossibility Of Emergent Works’ Protection In U.S. And Eu Copyright Law, Matt Blaszczyk

Fellow, Adjunct, Lecturer, and Research Scholar Works

Protection of emergent works is impossible. Without an author, there is no expression of ideas which can be original, and thus no copyrightable work. Indeed, the whole system of copyright law, its conceptual building blocks of idea-expression dichotomy, originality, authorship, and the concept of a protectable work operate in the notation of human creativity. Emergent works fall outside of copyright’s positive ontology, being akin to ideas, facts, or subject-matter predicated by technical considerations, rather than authorial creativity. In other words, they do not exist as things in law and thus cannot as such be owned. Rather, like any idea, they …

Defeating Rumpelstiltskin: Why The Temporary Provision That Excludes Student Loan Forgiveness From Gross Income Should Be Made Permanent, Josh Cohron

MC Law Review

Despite the advances in higher education that have been made in the United States over the years, there is still a crisis in this country concerning student debt and its fallout. One aspect of the student debt crisis that has the potential to loom over many individuals is the taxation of student debt forgiveness. Up until March 11, 2021, when all or part of one’s student debt was discharged, the amount was taxed as ordinary income for the year in which it was forgiven. Fortunately, on that date, the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 was passed which included a …

Cocaine And Corruption: The Rise In Drug Trafficking In Ecuador And Why It Isn’T Being Stopped, Ella Sicking

The International Law Review Association Student Forum

A state of emergency in Ecuador continues to be in effect as cocaine trafficking and gang violence become increasingly problematic. What started as cartel rivalries and increased cocaine production in bordering countries, Peru and Colombia, has turned into a full-scale drug war in Ecuador, stirring humanitarian and governmental concerns about the mounting violence in the once peaceful country. Increased regulation and United States intervention might be the only approach to save Ecuador from becoming a country ravaged by violence and run by the cartels, but local governmental corruption is currently acting as a barrier to a timely solution. While quick …

The Consequences Of Gender-Affirming Care: A Survey Of U.S. And U.K. Law, Caroline Hoch

The International Law Review Association Student Forum

The prevalence of youth experiencing “gender dysphoria” over the last decade has exploded. More minors than ever before are identifying as a different gender than their biological sex. Yet, there is a divergence among nations regarding what care is best for minors questioning their gender identity. The United Kingdom has begun to move away from prescribing minors puberty blockers and hormone therapies, as the federal government in the United States seeks to protect and promote gender-affirming care for youth. The response among the states is far more fractured. Some states have imposed bans on gender-affirming care for minors. While there …

West Virginia Law Scholar, Fall 2023, Wvu College Of Law Library

West Virginia Law Scholar

No abstract provided.

Third Coast Housing Solutions: The Case For Bringing Yimby Legal Activist Strategies To Chicago, Abigail Kuchnir

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

An insufficient supply of suitable housing stock is the root cause of issues like homelessness, overcrowding, and a cost burden on renters throughout the United States. A loose collective of activists and stakeholders comprise the YIMBY movement, an acronym for Yes In My Backyard. YIMBY advocates advance the perspective that additional housing stock is a necessary stratagem to improve housing availability and affordability, and they have used litigation as a tool towards developing new and diverse housing. This Comment examines the strategies currently used by legal activists in California, where impact litigation on this issue has been most prevalent. It …

One-Way Ticket To Mars: The Privatization Of The Space Industry And Its Environmental Impact On Earth And Beyond, Yuree Nam

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

In the 21^st century, the space industry has changed from a government-focused practice to a rapidly growing private sector. Billionaires like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos operate private companies for the advance of space travel and exploration. Other companies like Lunar Outpost, ispace, and Masten Space Systems were selected by NASA to collect lunar resources back in 2020. The concern is that current international space law is insufficient to regulate private actors who play a significant role in exacerbating environmental problems. Whether it be rocket emissions and environmental justice concerns on Earth, or commercial resource extraction in outer space, …

Name Takings, Gregory S. Alexander

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

Personal names are an integral part of our identity. Names belong to us; they are ours. Names are a form of personal property and should be treated as such. Nevertheless, the state, both historically and still today, has perpetrated various forms of abuse of personal names, ranging from outright takings of personal names to official denials of preferred names. This Article surveys the variety of ways in which the state has committed these name-takings, as I call them. It includes historical examples of name denials such as African slaves and Canadian Indigenous school children. It then considers various forms of …

Education, Employment, And Healthcare: Personal And Societal Strategies For Transitioning Servicemembers' Fiscal Sustainability, Kan Samuel

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.