Law Commons^™

Clean Up Your Act: The U.S. Government’S Cercla Liability For Uranium Mines On The Navajo Nation, Michelle David

University of Chicago Law Review

This Comment delves into the Cold War legacy of uranium mining on the Navajo Nation. Today, unremediated hazardous waste from more than five hundred deserted mines has continued to poison the health and lands of the Navajo. This Comment argues that the federal government is ultimately liable for the remediation of these mines under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA). Specifically, because the federal government held legal title to the mining lands and tightly managed the mining operations, the federal government satisfies CERCLA’s liability regime for “owners” and “operators.” The U.S. government’s liability under CERCLA warrants fuller …

The Lawyer’S Professional Duty To Encourage Respect For—And To Improve—The Administration Of Justice: Lessons From Failures By Attorneys General, Andrew Flavelle Martin

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The lawyer’s duty to encourage respect for the administration of justice remains largely amorphous and abstract. In this article, I draw lessons about this duty from historical instances in which Attorneys General inappropriately criticized judges. Not only are Attorneys General some of the highest-profile lawyers in the country, but they also face unique tensions and pressures that bring their duties as lawyers into stark relief. I focus on the two instances where law societies sought to discipline Attorneys General for such criticism of judges, as well as a more recent instance in which no discipline proceedings were pursued. I also …

Twenty Years After Krieger V Law Society Of Alberta: Law Society Discipline Of Crown Prosecutors And Government Lawyers, Andrew Flavelle Martin

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Krieger v. Law Society of Alberta held that provincial and territorial law societies have disciplinary jurisdiction over Crown prosecutors for conduct outside of prosecutorial discretion. The reasoning in Krieger would also apply to government lawyers. The apparent consensus is that law societies rarely exercise that jurisdiction. But in those rare instances, what conduct do Canadian law societies discipline Crown prosecutors and government lawyers for? In this article, I canvass reported disciplinary decisions to demonstrate that, while law societies sometimes discipline Crown prosecutors for violations unique to those lawyers, they often do so for violations applicable to all lawyers — particularly …

Submission To The United Nations Universal Periodic Review Of Yemen, Mwatana For Human Rights, Smith Family Human Rights Clinic

Human Rights Institute

This submission focuses on international human rights and humanitarian law violations by the Government of Yemen and allied armed groups, as well as by the armed group Ansar Allah (the Houthis), as supported by Mwatana’s original factfinding and documentation.

Circularity In Mineral And Renewable Energy Value Chains: Overview Of Technology, Policy, And Finance Aspects, Perrine Toledano, Martin Dietrich Brauch, Jack Arnold

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment

The mineral-intensive global energy transition and the increasing material needs of a growing population will exacerbate mining’s footprint on the planet, under current linear economy conditions. Responsible primary production of minerals and metals needs to be combined with circular economy approaches. CCSI’s report, Circularity in Mineral and Renewable Energy Value Chains: Overview of Technology, Policy, and Finance Aspects, examines existing conditions as well as reforms needed to enable global circularity in the mineral value chains of solar photovoltaic (PV) panels and wind turbines, zeroing in on four key materials: aluminum, copper products, silicon, and steel. The project was supported by …

Turning The Tide: How To Harness The Americas Partnership For Economic Prosperity To Deliver An Isds-Free Americas, Daniel Rangel, Lori Wallach, Ladan Mehranvar, Alvaro Santos, Mario Osorio

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment

During the Summit of the Americas in June 2022, U.S. President Joe Biden announced the launch of negotiations for an Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity (APEP). The Biden administration hopes this initiative can rebuild relationships with countries in the region by increasing cooperation to address economic development and inequality, climate, and other challenges affecting the entire Western Hemisphere. To fulfill this vision and its associated goals, the participating countries must address the severe challenges posed by the investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) regime and its escalating threats to the transition to a post-carbon society and the establishment of resilient public health …

Ghg Accounting For Low-Emissions Branded Steel And Aluminum Products, John Biberman, Perrine Toledano, Chloe Zhou

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment

Iron, steel, and aluminum products are major sources of GHG emissions, and these emissions have traditionally been hard to abate. As of 2020, the iron and steel and the aluminum industries accounted for 7% and 3% of global GHG emissions respectively. In recent years, demand has increased substantially for “green” iron, steel, and aluminum products which can allow purchasing companies to reduce their reported upstream scope 3 GHG emissions. In response to increased demand, companies in these industries have made an expanding array of green products available to customers.

“GHG Accounting for Low-emissions Branded Steel and Aluminum Products,” draws from …

Connecting Nuclear Security To International Frameworks On Gender And Security, Kathleen A. Doty, Jessica S. Burniske

International Journal of Nuclear Security

The international community is slowly beginning to recognize the intersections between law and policy as it relates to international security—particularly arms control, nonproliferation, and disarmament—and the body of human rights law that addresses gender equality. Notably absent from this discussion is the field of nuclear security. Despite its historical underpinnings as an inherently domestic activity, nuclear security is thoroughly grounded in international treaty law. However, nuclear security is often overlooked in the international security context and has not been well-situated in international instruments that address gender equality. We argue that gender equality in nuclear security should be understood as an …

Women In Nuclear Power Programs: Case Studies From Africa, Jessica S. Burniske, Chanel Chauvet-Maldonado, Beth Kaboro, Madalina Man, Susan Nalumansi

International Journal of Nuclear Security

Approximately 30 countries are considering, planning, or starting nuclear power programs, and nearly 20 more countries have expressed interest in nuclear power. Most of these countries are nuclear newcomers. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a nuclear power program is a major undertaking requiring careful planning, preparation, and investments in institutions and human resources because of the safety, security, and safeguards requirements associated with the use of nuclear energy. The IAEA Milestones Approach states that states should follow three phases of development to establish the necessary infrastructure for a nuclear power program. Nuclear security is one of the …

The Weakness Of Neighborhood Revitalization Planning In The Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Program: Warnings From Connecticut, Noah Kazis, Katherine M. O'Regan

Articles

The Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) is the nation's largest program to produce and preserve subsidized housing. To ensure that LIHTC avoids harmfully concentrating poverty, entrenching segregation, or inefficiently deploying resources, federal law requires that states prioritize allocating credits to projects located in high-poverty locations that contribute to a "concerted community revitalization plan" (CCRP). In high-poverty neighborhoods, tax credit developments are meant to facilitate broader neighborhood revitalization, not only to benefit the residents of the housing itself. This paper provides new, empirical support for long-standing concerns that the CCRP process is ineffectively enforced.

Looking at each application for competitive tax …

Law School Record, Vol. 70, No. 1 (Fall 2023), Law School Record Editors

Law School Record

• Message from the Dean
• Law School Faculty Shaping the Law with Their Ideas
• Lies and the Law
• With Two Generous Gifts, Pavel Malyi, LLM ’95, Promotes the Rule of Law Internationally
• Three Alumni to Clerk on US Supreme Court in 2023–2024 Term
• Art and the Law
• The Producers
• Law School Clinic Secures US Supreme Court Win in ICWA Case
• Student Q&A
• Law School Student and Alumna Win Coveted New Venture Awards
• Graduation 2023
• Chicago Unbound
• Scenes From Orientation
• Development News
• In Memoriam
• Meet the Class of 2026

A Primer On The Economics Of Conflicts Of Interest, Peter Siegelman

Connecticut Insurance Law Journal

There is a well-known conflict of interest between liability insurers and policyholders with respect to the decision to settle or litigate a claim. This short note provides a simple graphical explanation for the problem and grounds it in the way the structure of the parties' payouts drives their attitudes towards risk. An optional appendix links the insights to the elementary mechanics of financial options.

The Unnatural Disaster Of Insurance, Underinsurance, And Natural Disasters, Kenneth S. Klein

Connecticut Insurance Law Journal

This article presents a novel data set describing the frequency of materially inadequate homeowner insurance in the event of a total loss. For decades, after a natural disaster, large percentages of homeowners who have lost their homes report suffering a second devastating loss- that, entirely to their surprise, they are vastly underinsured. These reports provocatively suggest that a large majority of all insured homes in the United States-not just homes destroyed by a natural disaster-might be profoundly, unknowingly, and unintentionally underinsured. Insurance companies reject this possibility. Insurers posit that underinsurance is rare, that other than after natural disasters it may …

Policy Strategies To Improve Cybersecurity, Vincent Yesue

Connecticut Insurance Law Journal

No abstract provided.

University Missions And Legal Limitations On Campus Speech, George R. Wright

The Journal of Law and Education

No abstract provided.

Comments On The September 6, 2023 Draft Of A Wipo Broadcasting Treaty, The Definitions, Scope Of Application, National Treatment And Formalities, James P. Love

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is evaluating a proposal for a new treaty that provides rights to broadcasting organizations. The negotiations began in 1997 and are currently taking place in the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR). On September 6, 2023, the WIPO Secretariat published a revised draft text prepared by the SCCR Chair, SCCR Vice-Chairs and facilitators. This article looks at certain elements of the draft concerning the definitions, scope of application, national treatment and formalities. Objections to the text focus on several draft definitions and the scope of application on the grounds that (1) very …

Industrial Jurisdiction, Daniel Z. Epstein

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

William Novak’s New Democracy: The Creation of the Modern American State reveals how the current administrative state evolved to control economic activity through an incremental rejection of state-based common law and police powers in favor of centralized public regulation. This review identifies the business case for the administrative state and presents the first academic treatment of pro-regulation testimony from business interests during congressional consideration of the Interstate Commerce Act. In so doing, this review shows how the concept of industry is as much a legal concept as it is an economic one. This review argues that the nature of regulatory …

Training Is Everything: Artificial Intelligence, Copyright, And “Fair Training”, Andrew W. Torrance, Bill Tomlinson

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

In this Essay, we analyze the arguments in favor of, and against, viewing the use of copyrighted works in training sets for AI as fair use. We call this form of fair use “fair training.” We identify both strong and spurious arguments on both sides of this debate. In addition, we attempt to take a broader perspective, weighing the societal costs (e.g., replacement of certain forms of human employment) and benefits (e.g., the possibility of novel AI-based approaches to global issues such as environmental disruption) of allowing AI to make easy use of copyrighted works as training sets to facilitate …

Emergency Room To The Courtroom: Providing Abortion Care Under Emtala And State Abortion Bans, Natasha Rappazzo

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

After the Supreme Court eliminated the constitutional right to abortion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, states began to broadly criminalize abortion. Abortion is criminalized and restricted even in situations that constitute an emergency medical condition under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (“EMTALA”). State abortion bans with limited medical exceptions conflict with EMTALA’s protections for emergency screening and stabilization. Legal challenges to the scope of EMTALA show a growing divide and uncertainty on emergency abortion care in the United States. This Comment will discuss why physicians cannot confidently provide quality and competent abortion care without the …

Using The Common Law Of Contracts To Police Abusive Terms In Hospital Admissions Agreements: Balancing Freedom Of Contract With Fairness, George A. Nation Iii

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

Standard hospital admissions contracts (“HACs”) often contain provisions that are shockingly unfair, but are easily overlooked or misunderstood by patients. Hospitals rely on the common law of contracts, especially the doctrine of freedom of contract, to claim that these provisions should be enforced. Many courts have accepted the freedom of contract argument and enforced some or all of these provisions.

This Article suggests that courts are in error to enforce these harsh provisions against patients. This Article focuses on four harsh provisions commonly found in HACs. First is the payment provision which is opaque, misleading, and designed to allow hospitals …

“What’S Brewin’ With Bruen?” Why, And How, We Must Permit Certain Felons To Possess Firearms, Samuel Roos

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

In the summer of 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court decided New York Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, outlining a new test for the constitutionality of statutes regulating firearm possession. The result has been chaos. In less than a year, U.S.C. § 922(n) and § 922(g)(8), which criminalize possession by specific people involved in the criminal justice system, have been held unconstitutional. Challenges to other federal firearm regulations are flooding the courts.

Notably, § 922(g)(1), which criminalizes possession of a firearm by any person with a felony in their criminal history, has been vigorously challenged. Few courts have yet …

A Theory Of Federalization Doctrine, Gerald S. Dickinson

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

The doctrine of federalization—the practice of the U.S. Supreme Court consulting state laws or adopting state court doctrines to guide and inform federal constitutional law—is an underappreciated field of study within American constitutional law. Compared to the vast collection of scholarly literature and judicial rulings addressing the outsized influence Supreme Court doctrine and federal constitutional law exert over state court doctrines and state legislative enactments, the opposite phenomenon of the states shaping Supreme Court doctrine and federal constitutional law has been under-addressed. This lack of attention to such a singular feature of American federalism is striking and has resulted in …

The Presumption Of Constitutionality And The Demise Of Economic Liberties, James Huffman

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

For over two centuries the United States Supreme Court has embraced a presumption of constitutionality that places the burden of proof on those challenging the constitutionality of governmental actions. Usually, the presumption is stated as a given, but when explained it is most often said to be founded in republicanism and due respect for the co-equal branches of government. Thus, the presumption constitutes a deference to the constitutional interpretations of the elected branches of government. This majoritarian view of the Constitution’s foundational principle is counter to the dominant view of the Constitution’s founders. They designed a government constituted of numerous …

Alternative Evidence Rules For Arbitration, Henry Zhuhao Wang

Scholarly Publications

Today, arbitration is broadly used for resolving civil disputes domestically and internationally. It is a subject so popular in practice that calling it an “alternative dispute resolution” may in fact be a misnomer. Regarding the taking of evidence in arbitration, the cliché is that no rules apply, and that arbitrators have the ultimate authority. In practice, too many arbitrators simply let everything in, no matter how prejudicial, cumulative, incredible, suspect, or otherwise useless, for fear that ruling out anything may lead to vacatur.
This article probes into the importance and feasibility of having evidence rules in arbitration. It argues that …

Children Are Constitutionally Different, But Life Without Parole And De Facto Life Sentences Are Not: Extending Graham And Miller To De Facto Life Sentences, Ellen Brink

Fordham Law Review

Under the U.S. Supreme Court’s current juvenile sentencing jurisprudence, a juvenile may legally receive a prison sentence of hundreds of years without parole in instances in which a sentence of life without parole would be unconstitutional. This illogical state of affairs is the result of the Court’s silence on whether its holdings in Graham v. Florida and Miller v. Alabama, which together limit the availability of juvenile life without parole sentences, also apply to so-called de facto life sentences. De facto life sentences are lengthy term-of-years sentences that confine offenders to prison for the majority, if not the entirety, …

Front Matter, North Carolina Journal Of Law & Technology

North Carolina Journal of Law & Technology

No abstract provided.

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

North Carolina Journal of Law & Technology

No abstract provided.

How To Remedy Post Covid Pandemic Setbacks In Bridging The Digital Divide, Rob Frieden

North Carolina Journal of Law & Technology

No abstract provided.

Attaining The Right To Environment Through Environmental Impact Assessment, Umair Saleem

Dissertations & Theses

The thesis discusses the interconnection between the right to environment and environmental impact assessment (EIA), elaborating their depth and collective potential to effectively address most – if not all – of the complex and interconnected environmental challenges.

Firstly, the thesis explores the evolution of the environmental laws from the year 1900 and provides a unifying synthesis of the diverse environmental components, obligations, rights, and principles within international, regional, and national environmental laws. Secondly, it identifies the right to environment as a unifying and holistic right that integrates these environmental concepts and encapsulates comprehensive environmental protection. Thirdly, it provides a comparison …

Table Of Contents

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.