Law Commons^™

Discharging Equity: Harrington V. Purdue Pharma L.P. And The Validity Of Nonconsensual Third-Party Releases, Andrew Klauber

Duke Journal of Constitutional Law & Public Policy Sidebar

In September 2019, Purdue Pharma L.P. petitioned for bankruptcy in the Southern District of New York. Purdue, which the Sackler family had owned and operated for decades, developed and aggressively marketed addictive opioid products, contributing to the modern opioid epidemic. The tsunami of litigation arising from the opioid epidemic gave rise to claims against Purdue and the Sackler family estimated to total more than $40 trillion, causing Purdue to petition for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

In Purdue’s plan of reorganization, it employed a nonconsensual third-party release to discharge claims against the Sackler family. Nonconsensual third-party releases controversially enjoin parties to a …

Gambling On Housing: Is Adverse Possession A Valid Tool For The Reallocation Of Vacant Property?, Kelsey Dunn

Texas A&M Journal of Property Law

Adverse possession, a staple of first-year law school property classes, never fails to shock the conscience of unsuspecting law students. Some are surprised to learn that a squatter can acquire legal title to another person’s property by moving in and using it for a period of years. In recent years, housing activists have begun to view the doctrine as an outside-the-box solution to our nation’s housing crisis. There are dozens of vacant homes for every person experiencing homelessness in America. Why not give those properties to people who actually use them?

However, this well-intended impulse does not square with reality. …

Royalty Wars: The Dark Side To Raising The Minimum Royalty Rate For Oil And Gas Leasing On Federal Land, Audrey A. Helm

Texas A&M Journal of Property Law

In 2022, the Inflation Reduction Act took marked steps toward changing the course of the oil and gas industry for the first time in over 100 years, requiring that all federal oil and gas leases issued for the following decade have a minimum royalty rate of 16.67%. This paved the way for a major adjustment in the oil and gas industry, which has seen a 12.5% minimum royalty for the past century. In 2023, the Department of the Interior proposed to permanently codify these changes, citing purposes of ensuring a fair return to taxpayers and protecting the environment.

This Article …

Climate Change And Implications For National Security And International Law In The Arctic, Choteau X. Kammel

Texas A&M Journal of Property Law

Climate change threatens national security due to the potential it carries to destabilize fragile regions, damage military installations, and exacerbate existing tensions between countries. While these effects will be global, the Arctic region represents a microcosm of a future where climate change affects the strategic priorities of states and renders existing governing institutions inadequate. Moreover, climate change will challenge the collage of “soft” international law that governs the Arctic, administered primarily through the Arctic Council’s collaborative forum. While this system has been effective, the opening of the Far North to increased sea passage, commercial exploitation, and great powers’ interests necessitates …

A Retrospective Analysis Of Police And Legal Procedure In The West Memphis Three Murders, Nathan Scolaro

Scholars Day Conference

Presentation covering an overview of the West Memphis Three, key police and legal failings in the process and investigation, before concluding with policy suggestions.

Confronting Cosmetic Carcinogens: A Proposal Regarding The Dangers Of Talcum Powder, Rachael Howell

Helm's School of Government Conference - American Revival: Citizenship & Virtue

The Federal Government needs to stop the import, export, mining, and distribution of talcum powder in the United States. This is an issue that affects all Americans, especially active-duty military members.

Since 2013, there have been over 38,000 lawsuits against Johnson & Johnson, which allege that their talcum-based baby powder caused cancer. The plaintiffs in the very first talc case in the U.S. have died. All four of the plaintiffs from a 2019 suit have died. Yet, the 2019 case has been reversed and remanded. The FDA has redacted the names of scientist(s) that conduct “safety tests” on talc samples. …

The European Case For Kosovo, Serbia, And North Macedonia: A Western Balkan Focus, Logan Michael Kase

Helm's School of Government Conference - American Revival: Citizenship & Virtue

European integration of Western Balkan territories currently faces high-tension ethnic and religious antagonism between Serbia, Kosovo, and North Macedonia. The Balkans have been dealing with a cauldron of simmering ethnic internal battles that have lingered for decades. Years of Serbian and Kosovo contention severely setback the accession timeline, therefore, affecting further the integration of its neighbor North Macedonia. The European Union demands all disputes and corruption measures settled, per regulation standards set by the enlargement package from the commission. Key regional players’ sphere of influence becomes an interesting variable during policy discussions leaving a path to full European integration reliant …

The Link Between Intellectual Disability And Juvenile Delinquency, Scarlet Bates

Scholars Day Conference

The correlation between intellectual disability and juvenile delinquency is striking. Across the globe we see a higher number of offenders with an intellectual disability. Youths with intellectual disabilities may be more likely to engage in delinquent behavior. Early identification and intervention for intellectual disabilities, along with support for social and emotional development, could be crucial in reducing the likelihood of juvenile delinquency.

Rethinking Supply Chains: Mitigating The Risk Of Chinese Dependence And Protecting Us Semiconductor Intellectual Property, Jamison Finnamore

Helm's School of Government Conference - American Revival: Citizenship & Virtue

This paper explores the complex economic interdependence between the US, China, and Taiwan, specifically in the semiconductor industry. China’s increased aggression and intellectual property (IP) theft threatens to unbalance the iron triangle of US, China, and Taiwan trade relations. The problem overview elaborates on Taiwan’s crucial role in the semiconductor supply chain, and China’s threat against it. The argument is made that the US must take a nuanced and multifaceted approach to solving the diplomatic, economic, and military policy problem. Criteria for success are outlined, emphasizing the need to address root causes and not compromise US commitment to a free …

Break Their Lineage, Break Their Roots: Investigating The Chinese Government’S Relationship With The Uyghur Population To Determine The Potential For Terrorism And Genocide, Anya Veinberg

Helm's School of Government Conference - American Revival: Citizenship & Virtue

History is wrought with war, crime, and persecution. After nearly every conflict, world leaders vow to never let something similar happen again. Yet, history seems to repeat itself, and so do its conflicts. The Holocaust claimed the lives of millions of Jews and seemed to set a precedent of a modern threshold of evil. How many people would argue that an event strikingly similar to the Holocaust is happening right now in China?

The Chinese government is currently committing acts of violence and faith and race-based discrimination against the Uyghur population.

This work analyzes the interaction between the Chinese government …

Analysis Of Sun Tzu's Art Of War, Hannah Marchiny

Helm's School of Government Conference - American Revival: Citizenship & Virtue

America faces troubling times with various countries presenting unique threats. Few are more troubling than China. Now more than ever the U.S. needs effective strategies to combat global threats. To that end, I use Sun Tzu’s book Art of War as my main source for strategic wisdom. Sun Tzu’s principles have endured as long as they have because of their continued relevance in every generation and situation. In my paper, I discuss a few of the main tenets of Sun Tzu’s famous Art of War and how China is currently employing them against the U.S. I explain how China’s masterful …

State Compacts Vs. Emergency Powers, Ann Melise Mullins

Helm's School of Government Conference - American Revival: Citizenship & Virtue

It has been a continuous battle between state governments and the federal government on which party is best suited to provide relief and aid to citizens in times of natural disasters and public health crises. This paper will analyze the history of the state and federal government’s involvement in providing aid and relief in times of national crises, as well as the Constitutional provisions for which party should take responsibility.

The Driving Impact Of Artificial Intelligence On Global Expansion, Aleksandra Drozd

Senior Honors Theses

The invention and continual growth of artificial intelligence (AI) on the global stage have significantly shaped the world’s economies, governments, societies and their cultures. The new industrial revolution and the subsequent race of the world’s leading powers have led to increased international joint efforts and exchange of information, simultaneously reducing barriers to trade and communication. Meanwhile, emerging technologies deploying AI have led to changes in human behavior and culture and challenged the traditional nation-state model. Although several implications of the proliferation of AI remain unknown, its widening application may be tied with accelerating globalization, referred to interchangeably as global expansion. …

Democratizing Administrative Law, Joshua D. Blank, Leigh Osofsky

Duke Law Journal

When agencies make statements about the law, people listen. This insight yields a fundamental tension. According to one set of views, such agency statements, and their ability to influence public behavior, are critical not only for a well-functioning bureaucracy but also for our entire system of government. According to another set of views, this agency power, if left unchecked, could border on tyranny.

Administrative law responds to this tension through an extensive, purportedly comprehensive, framework that attempts to police agency statements. The framework places different types of agency statements into different legal categories. On the one hand, legislative rules make …

Regulatory Body Shops, Bridget C.E. Dooling, Rachel Augustine Potter

Duke Law Journal

Agencies do not always write their own rules. Contractors assist agencies in nearly all tasks relating to rulemaking, including reviewing public comments, conducting specialized research, and writing regulatory text. Despite perceptions that contractors’ roles are entirely ministerial, the reality is that contractors fulfill many more functions in the rulemaking process than is commonly understood, including everything right “up to pushing the big red policymaking button,” as one agency employee put it. The use of contractors in rulemaking fits within a broader pattern of increased government reliance on service contractors. Scholars have documented a bevy of governance concerns relating to ethics, …

Administrative Reliance, Haiyun Damon-Feng

Duke Law Journal

Presidential regime change and the federal policy shifts that accompany it raise significant questions concerning continuity, stability, and governance in the administrative state. Presidential policymaking through the administrative state may generate serious reliance interests recognized under administrative law (what this Article calls “administrative reliance”), which agencies must consider prior to enacting policy change. Administrative reliance has developed into a robust form of judicial review over agency action. Administrative reliance has been invoked in highly politicized contexts, such as immigration law, to challenge a sitting administration’s termination of a prior administration’s policies. Despite its powerful and consequential effects, the doctrine of …

Journal Staff

Duke Law Journal

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Cover, Cleveland State Law Review

Cleveland State Law Review

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Masthead, Cleveland State Law Review

Cleveland State Law Review

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Copyright Statement, Cleveland State Law Review

Cleveland State Law Review

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Table Of Contents, Cleveland State Law Review

Cleveland State Law Review

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Public Accommodations And The Right To Refrain From Expressing Oneself, Mark Strasser

Cleveland State Law Review

The United States Supreme Court has been unable to articulate a coherent position when addressing the right of individuals to refrain from expressing themselves. The Court has applied various tests inconsistently—emphasizing principles in some cases, ignoring them in subsequent cases, and then emphasizing them again in later cases as if those principles had always been applied. The Court’s approach is incoherent, offering little guidance to lower courts except to suggest that public accommodations laws may soon be found inconsistent with First Amendment guarantees.

Gaps In Our National Security: How The Lack Of Female Leadership Impacts Our Nation’S Success And Safety, Maggie Sullivan

Cleveland State Law Review

Gender inequality in the workplace is an ever-evolving discussion. One aspect of gender inequality that is frequently overlooked is the leadership gap—the lack of representation of women in the top positions of their respective careers. Research demonstrates that the leadership gap is particularly pronounced in the legal field. This Article analyzes the factors within the legal field that perpetuate the leadership gap and examines the unique, confounding qualities of careers in national security to illustrate an exacerbated problem of inequality for women lawyers in national security. The lack of adequate diversity in people working in—and leading—the national-security field has been …

Reassessing Administrative Finality: The Importance Of New Evidence And Changed Circumstances, Gwendolyn Savitz

Cleveland State Law Review

Administrative finality of agency action is generally thought of as a method of avoiding premature judicial review—a claim that the review is too early. But it is also used to prevent judicial review by claiming that the review has now come too late. There are two primary exceptions to this prohibition: new evidence and changed circumstances. However, courts and agencies are reluctant to permit challengers to use these exceptions as often as should be statutorily allowed, an area that scholarship has been neglected.

This Article fills the gap by exploring this aspect of administrative finality, looking at the important government …

Good Policing Practices Are Difficult, Even For The Avengers, Melanie Reid

Cleveland State Law Review

Policing, as a topic, is complicated. Many have strong views as to what police should or should not be doing and how effectively they are doing it. Too often policing has become polarized with various perspectives disagreeing as to the future of policing. Black Lives Matter, Defund the Police, and Policing Abolition movements are on one spectrum compared to the Blue Lives Matter Movement or other mayoral or police union initiatives. This is clearly a time to collaborate and learn from the various perspectives to bring hope and change in the future. Lawyers, academics, community members, and police officers alike …

Questioning The Legitimacy Of The Expedited Removal Process – The Tall Task Of Protecting The Constitutional Rights Of One Of America’S Most Marginalized Groups, Jacob J. Bourquin

Cleveland State Law Review

This Note explores the origin and development of 8 U.S.C. § 1225—a heavily debated facet of the United States’ immigration law. Section 1225, colloquially referred to as the “expedited removal process,” has been interpreted to permit low-level immigration officers to summarily remove certain “arriving” noncitizens from the United States without affording them the procedural due process protections guaranteed under the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution to all individuals present in the United States. This Note posits that the current interpretation of § 1225, particularly the interpretation of “is arriving,” and application of the expedited removal process is inconsistent …

Pleading For Justice: Analyzing Ohio’S Wrongful Conviction Compensation Statute And The Guilty Plea Disqualification Provision, Paige Betley

Cleveland State Law Review

Innocent until proven guilty? For some who have walked through the criminal justice system, this American adage did not seem to ring true. The criminal justice system has produced many wrongful convictions, which is an unthinkable injustice. These individuals must then fight for compensation to get back on their feet in society after spending years, if not decades, unjustly behind bars. Ohio’s wrongful conviction compensation statute perpetuates this injustice by categorically excluding exonerees who pled guilty to a crime they did not commit from receiving compensation from the State, with no exceptions. This Note critically analyzes the inherent harms from …

The Dueling First Amendment Clauses: Are They In Tension, Or Do They Work Together?, James Black

Helm's School of Government Conference - American Revival: Citizenship & Virtue

The Establishment and Free exercise clauses of the First Amendment respectively state that Congress does not have the ability to pass a law that would either establish a national religion or prohibit the free exercise of any religion. While some legal scholars have given a more secular interpretation of the Establishment Clause, suggesting that there is no place for Christianity or any other religion in the public square or to influence American government, this is in conflict with interpretation by a substantial number of legal experts and constitutional scholars living both in and before the modern era, some of whom …

Covid-19: The Federal Government, Federalism, South Dakota, And American Indians, Jordan Janson

Helm's School of Government Conference - American Revival: Citizenship & Virtue

This essay assesses the roles of the federal government and its relationship with Tribal Regions and states alike. Additionally, how COVID-19 affected states and localities and how different Presidential Administrations handled and responded to the pandemic while being compared with the state of South Dakota. Assessing whether or not the federal government overstepped reveals the preparedness of states. Certain states handled COVID-19-related issues better than others, and this essay addresses how Tribal Regions in states provided Governors with extreme complexities. Finally, this essay delves into the rights and responsibilities of the federal government and the state pertaining to American Indian …

Influences Of Social Media, Samuel Whatley Ii

Helm's School of Government Conference - American Revival: Citizenship & Virtue

The Internet is a double-edged sword because it provides easy access to information of both good and bad intentions. Censorship justifications under whoever deems something misinformation, provide little oversight on being a neutral public forum. For instance, the influence of elections by not covering a story and censoring opposing views does not promote the notion of being a neutral public forum. Artificial intelligence being applied to many technological applications have fueled the censorship machine. In some instances, artificial intelligence can generate stories to media sites (i.e., ChatGPT) with no verification of the details. From science fiction to science reality, taking …