Law Commons^™

Local Government, Jacob Stalvey O'Neal

Mercer Law Review

This Article surveys a selection of noteworthy cases involving local government that Georgia courts decided between June 1, 2022 and May 31, 2023.

Commissioners Shoot For The Moon, Citizens Land Among The Stars: The Supreme Court Of Georgia Affirms Citizen Referendum Power In Camden County V. Sweatt, J. Bailey Hotard

Mercer Law Review

Georgia citizens possess few direct democratic mechanisms to check the power of their local governments. One available tool is the referendum power proscribed by the Home Rule Provision of the Constitution of the State of Georgia. Under this provision, county and municipal citizens may petition their local governing authorities for referendum when a legislative decision is largely unpopular. Relying on originalism and textualism, the Supreme Court of Georgia interpreted the Home Rule Provision broadly in Camden County v. Sweatt, a decision than ran counter to a twenty-five-year precedent. This court’s recent interpretation of the Home Rule Provision allows citizens …

Hiding In Plain Sight: An Ilo Convention On Labor Standards In Global Supply Chains, James J. Brudney

Chicago Journal of International Law

This Article proposes a solution to the primary challenge currently confronting governments, employers, and workers under international labor law: how to promote and protect decent labor conditions in global supply chains (GSCs).

The Article begins by summarizing why existing public law and private law approaches have failed to meet this challenge over several decades. It describes the shortcomings of law and practice in developing countries as well as the weakness of corporate social responsibility (CSR), including the most ambitious version of CSR, the U.N. Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. It then analyzes the problems with recent national laws …

Accounting For The Selfish State: Human Rights, Reproductive Equality, And Global Regulation Of Gestational Surrogacy, Claudia Flores

Chicago Journal of International Law

Gestational surrogacy is a relatively new method of procreation made possible by advances in assisted reproductive technology (ART). In gestational surrogacy, a woman (gestational carrier) gestates a fetus that is often biologically unrelated to her on behalf of a third party. While this form of procreation has often been celebrated for allowing infertile and fertility-challenged persons to parent biological offspring, it has also prompted a series of complex human rights-related debates. Inconsistent and extreme state responses to gestational surrogacy have led to myriad tragedies: states have arrested gestational carriers, forced carriers to raise children born through the process, denied individuals …

Applying Derivative United Nations Immunity To Humanitarian Ngos, Tori Keller

Chicago Journal of International Law

United Nations (U.N.) privileges and immunities, enshrined in the Convention on Privileges and Immunities, protect U.N. personnel from legal proceedings and facilitate U.N. missions in volatile contexts. Today, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are essential providers of emergency humanitarian assistance in some of the most dangerous states. Even though some NGOs work under U.N. funding agreements, they lack the protective immunities of the U.N. This Comment assesses the bases for U.N. immunity and the similar concept of derivative sovereign immunity, whereby sovereign governments extend their immunity to quasigovernment entities and private contractors. It argues that derivative immunity from states is based on …

Too Many, Too Late: The Nfl’S Inverse Accessibility Issue And The New Rpo, Scott M. Finney

North Carolina Journal of Law & Technology

No abstract provided.

No Need To Reinvent The Wheel: Why The U.S. Should Implement Co-Regulatory Mechanisms To Regulate Deepfake Content On Internet Platforms, Abe Loven

North Carolina Journal of Law & Technology

No abstract provided.

Digital Twins In Healthcare: Proactive Regulation To Prevent A “Runaway Train”, Brynn Story

North Carolina Journal of Law & Technology

No abstract provided.

Constructing Clearer Policy: Reconsidering Louisiana’S Anti-Indemnity Regime For Additional Insured Agreements In Public Construction Contracts, Andrew Hughes

Louisiana Law Review

No abstract provided.

No.53 - December 2023, Center Of Civil Law Studies

The Center of Civil Law Studies Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Development, Voice, And Vulnerability: A Rhetorical Analysis Of The Policy-Making Discourse Regarding The Paris Agreement As An Organizational Response To Climate Change, David Almanza-Canas

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

On December 12, 2015, the Paris Agreement was officially ratified by 196 sovereign entities. This treaty represents a global call to action to ameliorate the impact of human activities on our environment, and it creates a means of cooperation through financial support and transparent industrial practices with the goal of promoting accountability across the world. This treaty and the discourse surrounding it present fertile ground for the academic understanding of persuasive practices in policy-making. By examining the rhetorical implications of the Paris Agreement as a global policy, scholars can gain new insight about the communities represented in the conversation as …

The New Comity Abstention, John Harland Giammatteo

Journal Articles

In the past ten years, lower federal courts have quietly but regularly abstained from hearing federal claims challenging state court procedures, citing concerns of comity and federalism. Federal courts have dismissed a broad range of substantive challenges tasked to them by Congress, including under the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Indian Child Welfare Act, and various constitutional provisions, involving state court eviction proceedings, foster care determinations, bail and criminal justice policies, COVID-era safety practices, and other instances where state courts determine state policy.

This paper is the first to argue that these decisions constitute a new abstention doctrine, unmoored from …

Dividing The Body Politic, James A. Gardner

Journal Articles

It has long been assumed in large, modern, democratic states that the successful practice of democratic politics requires some kind of internal division of the polity into subunits. In the United States, the appropriate methods and justifications for doing so have long been deeply and inconclusively contested. One reason for the intractability of these disputes is that American practices of political self-division are rooted in, and have been largely carried forward from, premodern practices that rested originally on overtly illiberal assumptions and justifications that are difficult or impossible to square with contemporary commitments to philosophical liberalism.

The possibility of sorting …

The Digitization Of Money: Stablecoins And Cbdc, Benjamin Geva, Mohammed Muraj

Articles & Book Chapters

Whether tokens are transferable peer to peer or via third party intermediation, through automation, tokenization could deliver gains by greatly speeding up settlement and increase efficiency by ensuring all parts of a transaction occur simultaneously, in what is called atomic settlement. This article addresses only the first model, that of the digital bearer instrument transmitted from a payer to a payee typically in a discharge of a debt. [...]a digital currency transferable under a decentralized protocol - such as (but not only) over a distributed ledger and yet issued centrally - is considered to operate in a "hybrid" scheme. The …

Clark Memorandum: Fall 2023, J. Reuben Clark Law School, Byu Law School Alumni Association, J. Reuben Clark Law Society

The Clark Memorandum

• Five Ways Law School Contributes to Life’s True Purpose
• Faith in Law: A Q&A with President Dallin H. Oaks
• Personal Religious Conviction and the Practice of Law

Investigating The Benefits Of Live Remote Proctoring, State Bar Of California

Grantee Research

This research project evaluated the Live Remote Proctoring (LRP) for the First-Year Law Students’ Examination (FYLSX) in terms of test performance, examinee experience, and exam violation incidents.

Utilizing LRP in the October 2022 FYLSX, the study compared this session to 20 previous exams spanning from 2012 to 2022 and analyzed post-exam feedback and violation reports. The findings indicate that LRP did not conclusively outperform previous remote testing modalities in terms of exam performance. While there was a modest improvement in pass rates, it fell within the expected range of historical fluctuations, suggesting that LRP may not have been the influencing …

Business Associations, Scott Lowry

Mercer Law Review

This Article surveys a selection of noteworthy cases involving business associations that Georgia courts decided between June 1, 2022 and May 31, 2023. This Article also briefly highlights the 2023 update to the Georgia Nonprofit Corporation Code, sections 14-3-101–1703 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, which was signed by Governor Kemp on May 2, 2023, and took effect on July 1, 2023.

Capital Punishment, Carlos Wood

Mercer Law Review

In Glossip v. Gross, a 2015 Supreme Court of the United States case that addressed the constitutionality of Oklahoma’s lethal injection protocol, Justice Breyer authored a dissent, joined by Justice Ginsburg, in which he noted the declining use of the death penalty in the United States. Justice Breyer began his dissent by noting the downward trajectory of the number of convictions that resulted in capital sentences. The evidence he cited included the following: from 1986 to 1999, approximately 300 people on average were sentenced to death every year, but in 2000, this number began to decline rapidly. In 2014, …

Evidence, John E. Hall Jr., W. Scott Henwood, Krysta Grymes

Mercer Law Review

In the decade following the adoption of Georgia’s new evidence code, courts throughout the state have analyzed and ruled upon complex issues involving the interpretation of the new rules, along with how to reconcile the new rules with the vast body of existing precedent. This Article discusses continuing interpretations of Georgia’s evidence rules in Title 24 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated (O.C.G.A.), for the period of June 1, 2022 through May 31, 2023, specifically delving into: (1) the admissibility of layperson opinion evidence; (2) the admissibilityof “other acts” evidence; and (3) judicial interpretations of “unfairprejudice” in relation to …

Insurance, Myrece Johnson, Maren R. Cave, Thomas D. Martin

Mercer Law Review

During this survey period, the courts in Georgia issued several meaningful decisions in the area of insurance following a somewhat quiet year immediately after the pandemic. The three areas of insurance that typically dominate this annual update—liability, property, and automobile insurance—saw several noteworthy decisions from the federal district courts, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, and the Court of Appeals of Georgia. In the liability or “third-party” arena, the courts in Georgia grappled once again with time-limited demands. The survey also disclosed at least one case dealing with the viability of coverage defenses not raised in …

State Constitutional Law:Standing To Litigate Public Rights In Georgia Courts, Randy Beck

Mercer Law Review

State courts interpreting state constitutions face the recurring issue of how much weight to afford Supreme Court of the United States precedent addressing comparable questions under the United States Constitution. At one end of the spectrum, many state courts routinely engage in what federal Judge Jeffrey Sutton calls “lockstepping,” importing federal doctrine wholesale into state decisional law. For a court engaged in lockstepping, concepts like freedom of speech or equal protection of the laws under a state constitution mean whatever the U.S. Supreme Court interprets them to mean under the federal Constitution, even if the state provision differs in potentially …

Trial Practice And Procedure, Joseph M. Colwell, Christopher B. Mcdaniel

Mercer Law Review

This Article addresses selected opinions and legislation of interest to Georgia civil trial practitioners issued during the survey period of this publication.

Workers' Compensation, H. Michael Bagley, J. Benson Ward

Mercer Law Review

Panels, Pandemics, Premiums, and Partnerships

This Survey Article explores legislative developments and judicial decisions by Georgia courts involving panels of physicians, joint ventures, subrogation, setting aside settlements, and insurance premiums to provide practitioners, academics, and law students with a comprehensive overview of the ever-evolving legal framework governing workers’ compensation in Georgia during the survey period.

Wills, Trusts, Guardianships, And Fiduciary Administration, Mary F. Radford

Mercer Law Review

This Survey Article discusses significant cases decided by the Georgia appellate courts during the period of June 1, 2022 through May 31, 2023, and significant Georgia legislation enacted in that same period that relate to Georgia probate and trust law, guardianship, and estate planning. Two of the cases described herein, Slosberg v. Giller and Hall v. Davis Lawn Services, Inc., are decisions of the Supreme Court of Georgia. Effective July 1, 2017, the Georgia General Assembly enacted O.C.G.A. § 15-3-3.1, which provides that the Georgia Court of Appeals has appellate jurisdiction over cases relating to wills and trusts. However, …

Mama Knows Best: Raffensperger V. Jackson Ushers In A New Framework For Professional Licensing Challenges And Recognizes A Right To Work For Lactation Providers Under The Georgia Constitution’S Due Process Clause, A. Tyler Kelly

Mercer Law Review

“State constitutionalism . . . is . . . vital yet underdeveloped[.]” The right to pursue one’s chosen profession free from unreasonable government interference is inherent in the Georgia Constitution’s Due Process Clause, and a recognition of such economic liberty reappears throughout the jurisprudence of the Supreme Court of Georgia. With the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) in 2010, the federal government delegated to the states the responsibility of navigating new policy which led insurance companies to reimburse a host of medical services from licensed professionals. At the time of the ACA’s passage, Georgia faced …

Events To Record: An Examination Of Required Activation For Body-Worn Cameras, Allison Reed

Honors Theses

There has been a lot of research on the effectiveness of body-worn cameras in policing including the impacts that body-worn cameras have on police officers, individual citizens, and the community. Results from prior literature show that police body-worn cameras are only sometimes highly effective. This project investigates why police body-worn cameras may not be effective by examining the required activation policies. Data for this project derive from the 2016 Law Enforcement Management Administrative Statistics – Body-Worn Camera Supplement (LEMAS-BWCS) study conducted by the Bureau of Justice Statistics. The main components of these data are the required events officers are to …

Integrating Lawyers Into Perinatal Care Teams To Address Unmet, Health-Harming Legal Needs, Loral Patchen, Roxana Richardson, Asli Mccullers, Vicki W. Girard

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Across the United States, historically imposed structural, social, and environmental variables are intimately connected to poor obstetric outcomes and high maternal and infant mortality rates among Black pregnancy-capable people. Efforts to diminish the effect of these variables include integrating screening for social determinants of health during the perinatal period and treating them with social services, mental health support, and other referrals, including connections to community-based resources. Although helpful, some of these social determinants cannot be overcome without legal advocacy. Medical–legal partnerships, which integrate lawyers into health care, fill this gap. This commentary by an interprofessional team of authors relies on …

Wrong Or (Fundamental) Right?: Substantive Due Process And The Right To Exclude, Jack May

Washington Law Review

Substantive due process provides heightened protection from government interference with enumerated constitutional rights and unenumerated—but nevertheless “fundamental”—rights. To date, the United States Supreme Court has never recognized any property right as a fundamental right for substantive due process purposes. But in Yim v. City of Seattle, a case recently decided by the Ninth Circuit, landlords and tenant screening companies argued that the right to exclude from one’s property should be a fundamental right. Yim involved a challenge to Seattle’s Fair Chance Housing Ordinance, which, among other things, prohibits landlords and tenant screening companies from inquiring about or considering a …

Journal Of Food Law & Policy - Fall 2023, Journal Editors

Journal of Food Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Enhanced Privacy-Enabled Face Recognition Using Κ-Identity Optimization, Ryan Karl

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Facial recognition is becoming more and more prevalent in the daily lives of the common person. Law enforcement utilizes facial recognition to find and track suspects. The newest smartphones have the ability to unlock using the user's face. Some door locks utilize facial recognition to allow correct users to enter restricted spaces. The list of applications that use facial recognition will only increase as hardware becomes more cost-effective and more computationally powerful. As this technology becomes more prevalent in our lives, it is important to understand and protect the data provided to these companies. Any data transmitted should be encrypted …