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Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

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Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Dignity By Design: A Human-Centered Framework For Ethical Ai, Armin Tadayon

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

The launch of ChatGPT in November 2022 has triggered a global arms race–both among private technology companies and between nation states–for dominance in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI). If this nascent technology, which is permeating every aspect of our lives as more companies across multiple sectors deploy it for a variety of functions, malfunctions or behaves in unanticipated ways, it can severely affect individuals in their day-to-day lives with broader consequences for society at large. As such, as AI permeates every aspect of our lives, and in some instances, begins to replace humans and human decision-making, it is imperative …

Chevron Deference, Prospective Gay Parents, And The Need For A Centralized Child Welfare System, Mantas Grigorovicius

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

For over four decades, Chevron deference allowed federal agencies to exercise considerable discretion in interpreting laws, enabling them to implement broad regulatory agendas. This deference was pivotal for administrative agencies, such as the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), in shaping public policy. However, in 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court decided to overturn this precedent, shifting power from agencies to courts and potentially reshaping the regulatory landscape. This Article examines the implications of this change within the context of child welfare, focusing on HHS’s role in foster care. As states often rely on taxpayer-funded private child-placing agencies to …

Imprisoned Without A Verdict: The Constitutional Crisis Of Pre-Trial Solitary Confinement, Symone R. Gibbs

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

Kalief Browder’s name endures as a chilling reminder of the human cost of pre-trial solitary confinement. His story reveals the constitutional paradox and moral failure at the heart of this practice: Individuals who remain legally innocent are subjected to one of the harshest punishments the state can impose. This practice strips people of their liberty twice over, first through incarceration itself, and again through prolonged isolation that inflicts devastating psychological harm. Despite its severity, the use of solitary confinement against pre-trial detainees remains largely overlooked in legal scholarship and reform, even as it undermines the presumption of innocence, exacerbates systemic …

The Broken Promise Of The Idea: How Delays And Disparities Undermine Special Education Rights, Silvia C. Montiel Morales

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) was enacted to guarantee children with disabilities the right to a free appropriate public education. In practice, that promise is too often broken. Students, especially those from low-income families and communities of color, wait months or years for evaluations, attend underfunded schools that lack qualified staff, and face systemic barriers to enforcing their rights. Meanwhile, families with resources can sidestep delays through private testing, attorneys, and advocacy, leaving others behind. This Note examines how systemic delays, underfunding, and inequities in special education services undermine children’s rights under the statute. It argues that these …

Editor's Note

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Bibliography On Indigenous Rights In Canada, 1995-2025, Leslie Haddock, Kent Mcneil

All Papers

No abstract provided.

Mexico’S Judicial Elections And The Politics Of Reform, Amanda Driscoll, Michael J. Nelson, Julio Ríos-Figueroa

Judicature International

No abstract provided.

Toys As Evidence, Randall K. Johnson

Faculty Works

This Essay asks and answers a single question, which was posed during a recent symposium at the National Museum of Toys & Miniatures. Could the study of revealed preferences, which is the idea that observed behaviors are the best indicator of one’s beliefs, improve our collective understanding about what constitutes unlawful discrimination in certain U.S. markets? A possible answer, which is informed by the Brown v. Board of Education decision, is the study of revealed preferences may improve our collective understanding for three reasons.

One reason is the study of revealed preferences provides a window into how some producers and …

Frederick Douglass, D.C. Recorder Of Deeds, Randall K. Johnson

Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Revolutionizing The Cross-Border Payment System, Muhui Shi

Michigan Technology Law Review

When you bought your coffee this morning, you probably didn’t notice that many cross-border payments were hidden in the process of shipping beans in Ethiopia to the barista in your neighborhood. Comprising more than ten percent of what U.S. consumers spend, cross-border payments are an essential part of U.S. dollar dominance and commercial competitiveness. Yet, the outdated cross-border payment system—shrinking constantly in reach and struggling with structural changes—is demanding a complete upgrade.

What is the best path forward? Cryptocurrencies? E-money? Stablecoins? Central bank digital currencies (CBDCs)? In this article, I answer the question by uncovering the core needs of the …

Regulating Ai Beyond Product Liability, Shruti Trikanad

Michigan Technology Law Review

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is being used by governments across the world to enforce regulatory mandates, adjudicate benefits and privileges, predict and analyze risks, and much more. Although this has significant potential to increase efficiency and responsiveness, it also comes with several risks of transparency, government accountability, and the amplification of discrimination and bias. It is crucial we oversee and regulate these AI systems effectively. This essay argues against the models that current regulatory frameworks are adopting to govern AI use: those resembling product liability.

Through the lens of the European Union's AI Act and Liability Directive, it highlights the unsuitability …

Health, Patents, And Path Dependence: India's Pharmaceutical Crossroads, Jacie Bissell

Michigan Technology Law Review

This paper examines how India’s historical commitment to affordable medicine and public health continues to shape its pharmaceutical patent regime, even as the country aspires to become an innovation-driven economy. Through the lens of path dependence, the paper explores how India’s legal and institutional frameworks have created structural constraints on policy reform. Focusing on key moments such as the Patents Act of 1970, the landmark Novartis decision, and India’s evolving stance on the TRIPS waiver during the COVID-19 pandemic, the paper analyzes the tensions between fostering pharmaceutical innovation and maintaining access to affordable medicines. While recent procedural reforms and judicial …

Recovering From The Ego Death Of The Internet: How The Communications Decency Act Has Shattered Cyber-Libertarianism And The Non-Exceptionalist Move Toward A Brighter Digital World, Peyton Friedlander

Michigan Technology Law Review

For nearly thirty years, the legal framework for analyzing liability for claims of tortious wrongdoing on the Internet has been governed by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (“CDA”). However, much has changed since the Act’s inception. Since Congress enacted the CDA, courts have interpreted its provisions far beyond their original meaning, creating a regime that ultimately destroys a prospective plaintiff’s ability to recover the equitable remedies once available to those seeking redress for online invasions of privacy and reputational harms.

As the Internet continues to grow and changes in technology rapidly develop, it is time to re-center equitable …

Conversational Ai And Human-Centered First Amendment, Inyoung Cheong

Michigan Technology Law Review

Human-centered artificial intelligence (AI) is premised on the idea that humans must remain the ultimate locus of agency in technological systems. First Amendment jurisprudence has displaced this commitment. By extending speech protection to algorithmic architectures, the judiciary has forged a doctrinal shield that insulates corporate actors from the consequences of their products. Conversational AI deepens this crisis through intimate incursions into the epistemic and emotional registers of the self. Emerging approaches that anchor First Amendment coverage to the controllability or traceability of AI outputs offer no stable solution. Policy-level design choices such as safety guardrails and alignment processes can readily …

The Dog Days Are (Almost) Over: Pari-Mutuel Betting Laws And State Subsidies’ Roles In Upholding The United States’ Dog Racing Industry, Mary Grace K. Mcnamara

Student Works

No abstract provided.

How Robotics Can Reduce Occupational Injuries In Hospitals: Is Hipaa A Barrier?, Uwa Maher

Student Works

No abstract provided.

The Justice For Victims Of War Crimes Act: A Dangerous Expansion Of Universal Jurisdiction To Non-International Armed Conflicts, Yuyan (Nicole) Zhang

Michigan Journal of International Law

Universal jurisdiction over war crimes committed in noninternational armed conflict (“NIACs”) has yet to develop a firm legal foundation under international law. The Justice for the Victims of War Crimes Act of 2023, however, amended the War Crimes Statute (18 U.S.C. § 2441) and extended universal jurisdiction to NIACs. This overreach risks infringing on the sovereignty of NIAC-affected states and destabilizing their ongoing peace processes. Many such states prioritize reconciliation through mechanisms like truth commissions over retributive justice through criminal trials. The prosecution of their nationals under U.S. law could undermine their sovereign decisions and unravel delicate efforts toward peace. …

Common Schemes, Real Harm: Examining Fraud In Medicare And Medicaid, Hearing Before The United States House Of Representatives Committee On Energy And Commerce, Subcommittee On Oversight And Investigations, Jessica Tillipman

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

The testimony argues that effective Medicare and Medicaid program integrity requires clear definitions, sustained oversight capacity, and incentives aligned toward prevention rather than retrospective recovery. It stresses that “fraud” is a legal determination and should not be conflated with broader measures of improper payments or documentation deficiencies, because that confusion distorts risk assessments and policy responses. It evaluates the current enforcement ecosystem across CMS, HHS-OIG, DOJ, GAO, and state partners, emphasizing coordination, stable resourcing, and accountability in managed care as central to deterrence. It also highlights how advanced analytics and generative AI can both amplify fraud schemes and strengthen detection, …

Control Capture And Competition, D. Daniel Sokol, Robert J. Rhee

UF Law Faculty Publications

This Essay identifies an emerging problem in antitrust law and policy, particularly in the technology industry. Antitrust doctrine has historically revolved around internal control of firm, i.e., equity acquisition. It focuses on the capture of internal control. Mergers and acquisitions trigger regulatory review. In these deals, the locus of anticompetitive behavior lies in ownership and internal governance. However, one can capture control through various ways. An emerging problem in antitrust law is external exertion of control through contract. Competition can be stifled, and thus price, non-price, and innovation factors can be controlled or manipulated through the levers of control existing …

Shifting Structural Power: The Tech Energy Transition, Amy L. Stein

UF Law Faculty Publications

For the first time in over a decade, flat and stagnant electricity demand is expected to skyrocket. This increased demand is driven in large part by data centers that support artificial intelligence, crypto mining, and cloud computing. This is straining the electric grid, its stakeholders, and legal constructs in significant ways. Legal energy scholarship has spent the last fifteen years focused on the challenges of managing an electric grid transitioning to clean energy, in a world where privately owned electric utilities maintain powerful monopolies across the country. But there are no accounts of how the balance of power in this …

Fundamental Rights And Fair Fights: Holding Out For Legal Patent Recognition Under State Multiparent Recognition Statutes, Heather Kolinsky

UF Law Faculty Publications

This Article considers the impact of the behavioral proxy of holding out to establish legal parenthood, and how that proxy functions in new statutory frameworks designed to recognize more than two legal parents for a child. Holding out was originally conceived as a mechanism to allow unmarried biological fathers to seek legal parent status. Holding out has been extended to intended and intentional parents in surrogacy and assisted reproductive technology as well as to married and unmarried same sex partners. In these iterations, holding out has facilitated legal parent recognition as the modern family form has evolved to include more …

The Apathy Economy: Patents, Advertising, And Consumer Indifference, Gavin Milczarek-Desai, Derek E. Bambauer

UF Law Faculty Publications

Patents function as signals as well as rights to exclude. They inform competitors, investors, employees, and consumers about the invention and its owner. How this information affects consumers is not well understood. Existing studies disagree about how advertising a product or service as patented, or patent pending, affects the price consumers will pay. This Article offers the first major empirical study of that question and finds that consumers behave with surprising rationality: they will not pay any price premium for a patented product. A product’s patent status conveys little information about whether it is superior to competing offerings. The results …

Copyright Disincentives, Thomas D. Haley

UF Law Faculty Publications

Over the last decade, a spate of high-profile copyright infringement lawsuits rattled the music industry. Controversy followed in the wake of multi-million-dollar damages awards, with criticism emanating from courts, scholars, and musicians alike. The basic logic of the critique is sound: the specter of such massive liability for small and inadvertent similarities disincentivizes the creation of new music. But the disincentive effect remains curiously under-theorized. This Article develops the literature’s first nuanced account of this disincentive theory, drawing on analysis of hundreds of copyright dockets as well as interviews with musicians to show that the feared disincentive has not come …

Reconceiving Safety Regulation For Ai And Ml Medical Software, Barbara J. Evans, Eric S. Rosenthal, Azra Bihorac

UF Law Faculty Publications

This article explores the challenges of regulating AI and ML clinical decision support tools intended to assist trained health care professionals in delivering clinical care. Two old, twentieth-century regulatory models have dominated discussions of medical AI policy since 2013. Thinking inside these old regulatory boxes has not produced effective regulatory solutions to address the novel risks AI poses in clinical care. The first regulatory box treats software as a medical device, which tasks medical device regulators with making software safe but neglects the crucial roles physicians, nurses, administrators, medical practice regulators, and other health oversight bodies must also play to …

A History Of Vacatur, Benjamin B. Johnson

UF Law Faculty Publications

Vacatur, a seemingly routine appellate tool, has evolved into one of the Supreme Court’s most potent instruments for declaring law. This Article offers the first comprehensive historical account of vacatur, tracing its roots from English and early American practice through its twentieth-century transformations to its contemporary uses. Historically, courts used vacatur to manage dockets, correct procedural irregularities, or enforce reversals on the merits. Modern usage has departed markedly from these roots. The Court now frequently employs vacatur to declare binding legal rules without issuing judgments, effectively circumventing traditional limits on judicial power. Taking seriously the Court’s own insistence on history …

Crypto Money Laundering, Jiaying Jiang

UF Law Faculty Publications

The crypto ecosystem has become a new frontier for money laundering, with criminals exploiting its anonymous and pseudonymous features. This Article explores how money laundering operates in the crypto space and highlights emerging trends. It then examines the existing legal and regulatory framework and argues that its core weakness lies in its reliance on trusted intermediaries. This approach conflicts with the philosophy that shaped the emergence of the crypto industry-one grounded in disintermediation and decentralized trust. To address this tension, this Article demystifies decentralization, showing that it is not a binary condition but instead exists on a spectrum. Across the …

Beyond Sharenting, Stacey B. Steinberg

UF Law Faculty Publications

Sharenting—the practice of parents sharing information about their children online—has become mainstream in American society. While most forms of sharenting may be considered benign or even beneficial, some parents harm or exploit their children when sharing online. For example, “mom-influencers” often violate their children’s privacy in their attempts to attract followers to their social media accounts. While traditional forms of parental sharing raise privacy concerns, we are only beginning to understand the dangers and impacts of widespread exposure of children on social media.

This Article is the first to propose a welfare model of child protection to address exploitative and …

Front Matter

SMU Law Review

No abstract provided.