Law Commons^™

Grammar & Syntax Arguments On The Roberts Court, Anita S. Krishnakumar

Journal of Law and Policy

In his excellent book, The Language of Judges, Professor Solan demonstrates how judges use grammatical or linguistic arguments to avoid acknowledging statutory ambiguity—and how they often get the grammar or linguistics wrong. Since his book was published, textualism has become the dominant interpretive approach on the U.S. Supreme Court—and we have seen increasingly prominent battles involving grammatical devices and rules. This comment takes Professor Solan’s analysis as a jumping off point to evaluate how grammar and linguistic arguments are employed on the modern Supreme Court, in the age of textualism. The comment offers a brief empirical and doctrinal assessment of …

Silent Suffering: Demanding Individual Accountability For Sexual Assault Against Disabled Children In School Environments, Stephanie Flores

Journal of Law and Policy

Disabled children are among the most vulnerable in society, particularly in school environments where they depend on the actions and care of others for their safety. These children face significantly higher risks of sexual abuse than their non-disabled peers, and school officials' negligence can exacerbate this danger. Despite the prevalence of such cases, the Fifth Circuit's refusal to recognize school officials’ liability under the state-created danger doctrine, as seen in Fisher v. Moore, deprives disabled children of adequate legal recourse under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The decision holds that school officials cannot be held personally liable for the peer-inflicted sexual …

Growing Rich Off The Fruits Of Private Incarceration, Joseph Hennessy

Journal of Law and Policy

Mass incarceration is a uniquely American phenomenon. With roots in chattel slavery, modern mass incarceration truly exploded in the latter half of the 20th Century. As Reagan-era politicians advocated for fiscal conservatism on the one hand and heavy-handed responses to crime on the other, private prison pioneers saw an opportunity to derive profit from society’s most vulnerable. Today, private prisons house as much as half of some states’ total prison population, and private prison corporations have demonstrated an insatiable desire to expand their reach. This Note explores the unique social vulnerability of privately incarcerated people through a statutory and judicial …

Property Rights Or Obstacles To Progress?: The Fundamental Flaws In Takings Jurisprudence, Liam Higgins

Journal of Law and Policy

New York boasts some of the strongest protections for tenants out of all jurisdictions throughout the country. Chief among these laws is the state Rent Stabilization Law (“RSL”). Among other protections, the RSL has limited excessive rent increases on regulated apartments, granted tenants a right of renewal so that they could remain in their homes, and permitted family members to take over the tenancy of their loved ones upon their passing. The RSL has been amended several times throughout its history, each time providing more or less protections depending on the administration at the time. Recently, in 2019, the New …

The Equal Pay Game Changer: Using Mandatory Reporting To Encourage Corporations In The Sports Ecosystem To Increase Investment In Women’S Sports, Caroline Strauss

Journal of Law and Policy

In 2016, the United States Women’s National Team began a lengthy fight for equal pay by filing a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. In 2019, the fight continued when the team sued the United States Soccer Federation for gender discrimination. When the court granted summary judgment to the U.S. Soccer Federation on their Equal Pay Act claim, it closed the door for the team to achieve equal pay through a public law remedy. The tedious fight came to an end with a settlement which guaranteed that the U.S. Men’s and Women’s National Teams would be paid equally. Although …

The Case For Stronger Scrutiny Of The Deductibility Of Crypto Losses, Vincent Ooi

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

My paper, The Case for Stronger Scrutiny of the Deductibility of Crypto Losses, which was recently published by The Journal of Tax Administration, discusses the issue of crypto losses and risks to the tax base. It submits that tax authorities and national legislatures should step up their scrutiny of the deductibility of crypto losses and proposes some ways in which this can be done in practice.

Aid Or Abuse? A Review Of U.S. Police Assistance Programs In Latin America During The Early Cold War, Brianna Mcnally

War, Diplomacy, and Society (MA) Theses

During the Cold War, the United States used police assistance programs in under-developed countries to stop the spread of communism. Police aid aimed to improve a country’s economic stability and internal security to curb the rise of communist revolutions. The U.S. government charged the Office of Public Safety (OPS) within the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) with managing police assistance programs around the world, including in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

Despite its seemingly good intentions, the OPS became a short-lived program now known today for its ties to human rights abuses, especially throughout Latin America. Several Latin American …

Water Fluoridation: The Evidence Behind The Risk Of Fluoride Use, Margherita Fontana D.D.S., Ph.D., Carlos González-Cabezas D.D.S., M.S.D., Ph.D., Livia Tenuta D.D.S., M.Sc., Ph.D.

The Journal of the Michigan Dental Association

The debate surrounding fluoride use for caries control has intensified due to recent events, including a National Toxicology Program (NTP) report and a court ruling mandating EPA action on fluoride levels in tap water.

Despite concerns about fluoride's potential neurodevelopmental impact at high concentrations, current evidence shows no adverse effects at the recommended levels of 0.7 ppm in U.S. community water fluoridation programs. While studies in regions with endemic fluorosis suggest an association between high fluoride exposure and lower IQ, methodological limitations undermine causal conclusions.

Global and U.S. health authorities, including the WHO and ADA, reaffirm the safety and efficacy …

What You Must Know: Retention And Destruction Of Dental Records And Your Most-Asked Questions About Dental Records, Daniel Schulte Jd

The Journal of the Michigan Dental Association

An overview of the basic information about dental records, including retention and destruction, that you and your staff should be aware of, provided by MDA Legal Counsel Dan Schulte, J.D. Plus, for your reference, answers to the questions Michigan dental offices are asking about dental record retention, access, release, and destruction.

Dental records are vital for patient care, legal compliance, and professional practice management. Michigan law mandates retaining dental records for a minimum of 10 years, ensuring their confidentiality, accessibility, and integrity. Destruction of records less than 10 years old requires patient notification and authorization, while those over 10 years …

Critical Analysis Of Archival Data: The Alvarado V. Episd Case, Mauro Alfredo Hinojosa

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This research analyses the Alvarado vs. El Paso Independent School District legal files, housed at the Sonnichsen Special Collections Department, The University of Texas at El Paso Library. This dissertation explored the following questions: Research question 1 (RQ1): What are the political and social-cultural contexts of the Alvarado case based on the Archives?; and Research Question 2 (RQ2): impact on school education, to include themes in policy and leadership. A qualitative research approach framed through Latino Critical Race Theory exposes how the U.S. education system has historically reinforced White perspectives and marginalized Latino groups, specifically focusing on Mexican-American students in …

Roger Williams University 2024 President's Report: A Message From President Miaoulis, Roger Williams University

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Follow The Bloody Brick Road: Bleeding Kansas And The Emancipation Proclamation, Margaret Hu

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

To help illuminate Balkin’s project of Memory and Authority, this brief Essay considers a slice of American memory from Kansas’ historical archives and other primary sources, and examines its unique role in the Civil War. Specifically, it excavates the influence of Kansas’ leaders as advisors to President Abraham Lincoln. Prior to and during the Civil War, Lincoln relied upon the guidance of senior leaders from Kansas on matters ranging from guarding the White House, war strategies, the recruitment of former enslaved persons to the war effort, and the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation as a part of an effective …

Brief Of First Amendment And Internet Law Professors As Amici Curiae In Support Of Petitioners, Tiktok Inc. V. Garland, No. 24-656 (U.S. 2025)., Shubhangi Agarwalla, Enrique Armijo, Kevin Bankston, Susan Benesch, Ashutosh Bhagwat, Stuart N. Brotman, Ryan Calo, Anupam Chander, Erwin Chemerinsky, Alan K. Chen, David Craig, Eric Goldman, Gregory Gondwe, James Grimmelmann, Nikolas Guggenberger, G.S. Hans, Robert A. Heverly, Thomas E. Kadri, David Kaye, Heidi Kitrosser, Vivek Krishnamurthy, Edward Lee, Mark A. Lemley, David S. Levine, Yvette Joy Liebesman, Gregory P. Magarian, Jess Miers, Sean O’Brien, Mary-Rose Papandrea, Kermit Roosevelt, Jennifer Safstrom, Pamela Samuelson, Madhavi Sunder, Christopher Jon Sprigman, Jordi Weinstock

Con Law Center Amicus Briefs

“Without freedom of thought, there can be no such thing as wisdom, and no such thing as public liberty, without freedom of speech.” Benjamin Franklin, Silence Dogwood, No. 8 (July 9, 1722). For this reason, the U.S. Constitution makes clear that the Government cannot abridge free speech based on its content or viewpoint absent compelling and narrowly tailored grounds. Indeed, the protection of all speech is foundational to American democracy. See United States v. Schwimmer, 279 U.S. 644, 654–55 (1929) (Holmes, J., dissenting) (“[I]f there is any principle of the Constitution that more imperatively calls for attachment than any other …

Wills, Trusts, And Estates, Allison A. Tait, Hunter M. Glenn

University of Richmond Law Review

This year could be considered quiet in both legislative and judicial activity, lacking as it was in any substantial new legislative enactments or major opinions from the Supreme Court of Virginia on core wealth transfer issues. Nevertheless, a set of modest legislative changes helped bring the rules for revocable trusts in line with the rules for wills, standardizing estate planning and wealth transfer regulation, while other changes also brought clarity to existing rules by amplifying procedures and providing additional de- tail for administrative processes. In the judicial setting, while guidance for this practice area was primarily provided by the Court …

Taxation, Craig D. Bell

University of Richmond Law Review

This Article reviews significant recent developments in the laws affecting Virginia state and local taxation. Its Parts cover legislative activity, judicial decisions, and selected opinions from the past year. Part I of this Article addresses taxes administered by the Virginia Department of Taxation (“Tax Department” or “Department”). Part II covers local taxes including real and tangible personal property; machinery, tools, and license taxes; and other discrete local taxes.

The overall purpose of this Article is to provide Virginia and general practitioners with a concise overview of the recent developments in Virginia taxation that are most likely to impact their clients. …

The Geopolitics Of Group Referrals To The International Criminal Court And Its Implications On The Court's Legitimacy And Credibility, Dr. Destaw A. Yigzaw

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

Under the Rome Statute, situations are referred to the International Criminal Court (“ICC” or “Court”) either by a state party or the Security Council. In recent years, however, referrals from both sources have become difficult to come by. Instead, there is an evolving practice of referrals by a coalition of third states parties (“group referrals”). Yet, a group referral as a trigger mechanism does not have an explicit textual basis under the Rome Statute (“Statute” or “ICC Statute”). There is no rationale for it either, since a referral by a single state party is all that is needed to trigger …

A Delicate Balance: The Japan-Us Status Of Forces Agreement Applying A Comparative Framework To Recommend Changes To Criminal Jurisdiction Provisions In The Japan-Us Status Of Forces Agreement To Better Protect The Interests Of Japan And The United States, Keara Schmeiser

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

The criminal jurisdiction provisions of the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement (“SOFA”), which governs the rights of US servicemembers deployed in Japan, must be amended. The recent Japanese criminal conviction of a U.S. naval officer focused U.S. lawmakers’ efforts on revising the Japan-U.S. SOFA. This led to a provision in the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (“NDAA”), which requires the U.S. Secretary of Defense and Secretary of State to analyze the largest existing U.S. bilateral agreements and their treatment of U.S. servicemembers’ rights in foreign courts and, by the end of 2024, report their findings to congressional committees. This Note …

North Korean Trash Balloons And International Law, Andrew Wolman

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

In May 2024, North Korea introduced a new tactic to the inter-Korean drama: the launching of balloons full of trash into the South. To date, over 2,000 balloons of these balloons have been launched across the demilitarized zone, carrying a mixture of different types of waste as cargo. While they have led to little material damage, the trash balloons have raised tensions on the peninsula, and led to widespread condemnation, including on the grounds that they violate international law. In this paper I examine whether the launching of these balloons in fact does violate international law. I conclude that North …

Protecting Cultural Property From Climate Destruction: A Case Study Of Greece, Audrey Nadler

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

Climate change poses an escalating threat to Greece’s cultural heritage, with ancient sites such as the Acropolis of Athens and the Palace of Knossos at risk from rising sea levels, wildfires, and pollution. Greece’s legal system includes protections for cultural property and aligns with international treaties, yet lacks sufficient integration between cultural heritage laws and environmental safeguards, leaving vital sites vulnerable. This Note contends that Greece must reinforce domestic law to bridge this gap and protect cultural assets from climate-induced harm. Addressing this deficiency through legal reforms and economic incentives could prevent irreversible damage to Greece’s cultural identity and fulfill …

Time To Stop Trip-Ing: The World Needs A New Geographical Indications Agreement, Evan Glatt

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

When it comes to purchasing food and alcohol, a product’s name carries weight and helps consumers make decisions. When the product’s name includes a place and establishes a certain level of quality and expectation, consumers trust that the product is what it purports to be. This concept, the reputation of a particular food product by name, is known as a geographical indication (GI). GIs cover a wide range of products, from the well-known champagne to lesser known products such as Roquefort cheese. GIs create financial value for local producers, contribute to sustainability initiatives, and raise the quality of goods for …

Does The Loss Of Chance Doctrine Have A Chance In International Sport Arbitration?, Dmitry A. Pentsov

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

The Article analyzes whether and, if so, how, the loss of chance doctrine providing the basis for claims against person who deprived victims of a chance of occurrence of a certain result or decreased this chance could be used in international sport arbitration at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). It provides a comparative analysis of applicability of this doctrine under English law, French law, and the law of the State of New York to sport competitions and outlines potential problems of utilizing this doctrine in the CAS arbitration through domestic law based on choice-of-law rules. The Article argues …

Human Rights Forum Shopping In Transnational Sport Disputes, Ilias Bantekas

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

Professional athletes must adhere to the dispute resolution mechanisms contained in their agreements with sport governing bodies (SGBs). These typically provide for SGB institutional arbitration with appeals against such awards to CAS, although in some instances direct recourse to CAS is also possible. These mechanisms do not cater for attendant human rights claims arising from the underlying dispute. This article suggests that a variety of sui generis forum shopping possibilities are available to address this deficit. Applicants may approach national courts with a sufficient jurisdictional link to the SGB in question by raising constitutional (and by extension human rights) and …

Outlier On Lgbtq Rights: Japanese Ban On Same-Sex Marriage And Its Contradiction In The Age Of Globalization, Yumi Higashi

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

Japan is the only Group of Seven country yet to recognize same-sex marriage. Despite strong public support for marriage equality, the conservative dominance of the Japanese legislature and the Japanese courts’ deferential approach have stalled the change. This Note will analyze the legal issues and implications of Japan’s failure to recognize same-sex marriage and Japan’s worldwide inheritance tax regime, with an emphasis on cross-border succession and estate planning. Specifically, the Note argues that the United States, as the only country with which Japan has a treaty in estate, inheritance, and gift tax, should renegotiate the treaty as it could have …

Sliding Into Safety: Why Formal United Nations Or United States Sanctions Or Action Would Help Major League Baseball Curb Human Smuggling And Trafficking Issues, Maxwell Russ

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

Every year when the baseball season ends and the offseason begins, professional teams’ front offices go searching for the best available players. Often, incredibly talented baseball players can be found across the world and today, Major League Baseball (MLB) players come from across the globe. Yet, despite the global outreach of MLB, the process by which teams are allowed to search for, recruit, and sign foreign-born players remains largely unregulated by the league itself. For years, stories of players from foreign countries being subjected to shady and unethical practices have begun to surface. This dark side of baseball was even …

The Right To Inequality: Conservative Politics And Precedent Collide, Jonathan Feingold

Faculty Scholarship

The “end of affirmative action” is the beginning of this story. In Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard (SFFA), the Supreme Court struck a near fatal blow to race-consciousness. Many institutions have since pivoted to “race neutral alternatives.” This is a natural turn. But one that faces immediate headwinds.

The same entities that demanded Harvard pursue racial diversity through colorblind means have sued public high schools for doing just that. These litigants assert a “right to inequality”—a theory that would pit the equal protection clause against equality itself. Even if normatively jarring, a right to inequality might seem a …

Health Law And Democracy, Wendy K. Mariner

Faculty Scholarship

Current political divisions are destabilizing existing laws affecting the health field. Major changes in the field of health law have one thing in common: changes in who holds political power ‒ Congress and state legislatures, governors, presidents, judges, and agency officials. The laws that structure financial, economic, educational, and health care systems, environmental conditions, and civil society are primarily the product of elections that populate our political institutions. These structural determinants of health in turn create laws that influence how ‒ and how well ‒ we live and whether our society functions fairly under the rule of law. Thus, who …

Transplantation And Immortality: A Selective History Of Boston University’S Center For Health Law, Ethics & Human Rights, George J. Annas

Faculty Scholarship

The celebration of the anniversary of the Center for Health Law, Ethics & Human Rights (the “Center”) provides an opportunity to reflect on what defines the field of health law, as well as its conjoined twins of bioethics and human rights. The related fields are vast, and the subjects they encompass are ever-expanding. It is probably impossible to lay out a summary that does justice to their expansive, interdisciplinary scope. Instead, my discussion of the Center examines a subject that barely existed when the Center was formed in 19581 and that continues to make headlines more than sixty–six years later …

Just Fix The Damn Payment System!, Frances H. Miller

Faculty Scholarship

This piece takes as a given that we are stuck with our fragmented, inefficient, multi-payor health care system for at least the short run. It then analyzes the deficiencies of three payment mechanisms whereby regulators (including Congress) have invited private sector providers to help ameliorate perceived problems. The first concerns an inadequate supply of nursing home beds in the early ‘70s, the next focuses on Medicare Advantage as a supposedly superior cost containment alternative to traditional Medicare, and the final one involves the ‘devil’s bargain’ struck with the pharmaceutical industry to get prescription drug coverage added to Medicare. All three …

Colonizing By Contract, Emmanuel Hiram Arnaud

Faculty Scholarship

Since 1898, Puerto Rico has been a territory of the United States, meaning that Congress wields plenary power over the Island. Although scholars have highlighted the history and some modern manifestations of this power, conversations about how plenary power affects the territories have largely ignored constitutional criminal procedure.

This Article is the first to center the territory’s criminal legal system within the broader debate over the exercise of plenary power. In doing so, it fills significant gaps in the constitutional and criminal law literature on the territories by uncovering how the federal government’s plenary power affects local criminal adjudication. This …

Regulating Social Media Through Family Law, Katharine B. Silbaugh, Adi Caplan-Bricker

Faculty Scholarship

Social media afflicts minors with depression, anxiety, sleeplessness, addiction, suicidality, and eating disorders. States are legislating at a breakneck pace to protect children. Courts strike down every attempt to intervene on First Amendment grounds. This Article clears a path through this stalemate by leveraging two underappreciated frameworks: the latent regulatory power of parental authority arising out of family law, and a hidden family law within First Amendment jurisprudence. These two projects yield novel insights. First, the recent cases offer a dangerous understanding of the First Amendment, one that should not survive the family law reasoning we provide. First Amendment jurisprudence …