Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons^™

Winging It: Convergence, Convivencia, And Belonging Of Latina Lawyers, Verónica C. Gonzales

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

"In Better Times": The Basis Of Representation And The Forgotten History Of The Fourteenth Amendment, Jessica I. Gorovitz

Fordham Law Review

Over the past several years, the U.S. Supreme Court has incorporated history into the analysis of unenumerated individual rights, like abortion, and enumerated ones, like the right to keep and bear arms. But it has not incorporated history into its approach to individual rights claims of racial discrimination under the Equal Protection Clause, a methodological gap the Court has left unexplained. Rather, it has held that the purpose of the Fourteenth Amendment is to prevent racial classifications, largely citing its own precedent, eschewing the Amendment’s history. This approach conflicts with section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which requires states …

7th Annual Women In Law Leadership Lecture March 4, 2026, Roger Williams University School Of Law

School of Law Conferences, Lectures & Events

No abstract provided.

Contagious Discrimination: Why Race-Blind Justice In Courtrooms Is Not Enough, Yijia Lu, Murat C. Mungan

Faculty Scholarship

Existing theories of discrimination focus on discrimination at the individual, societal, or organizational level. We highlight the importance of the dynamic relationship between different institutional actors who jointly give rise to discriminatory outcomes. This reveals that discrimination can be contagious: discrimination that would otherwise not occur at one institutional level can arise due to discrimination at another institutional level. Therefore, discrimination by some actors can trickle down and create disparate impacts in processes that would otherwise be free of discrimination. This phenomenon, which we term “contagious discrimination,” can manifest itself in various settings such as employment and commercial trade negotiations. …

Outbound Investment Restrictions And International Law’S Challenge, Harlan Grant Cohen

Seattle University Law Review

The Outbound Investment Rule, restricting U.S. investment in certain Chinese advanced technology sectors, has largely been portrayed as an incremental measure, a modest extension to fill loopholes in the existing investment screening regime. But while perhaps the logical next step in the securitization of the economy, the Outbound Investment Rule actually reflects a momentous shift in the relationship between governments and business, one playing out in the United States and around the world and worth attention. Unlike traditional investment screening, the Outbound Investment Rule operates like a sanctions regime, designed not to protect the U.S. economy, but to hamper the …

Resilient Dispute Resolution Systems For International Energy Conflicts, Guillermo J. Garcia Sanchez

Seattle University Law Review

Energy-related conflicts are on the rise, spanning diverse issues such as the impacts of rare mineral mining on local communities, the impacts of sanctions on energy investments due to the Russia-Ukraine war, and the impacts of expanded subsidies on the electric vehicle and solar panel industries. Increasingly, companies, communities, and governments are clashing over the challenges of pursuing disparate and sometimes competing energy policies. This Article argues that dispute resolution mechanisms in the energy investment sector must be fundamentally rethought. Traditional semi-adjudicatory models, which focus on winners and losers, fail to accommodate the complex and multifaceted nature of contemporary energy …

Restricting Data Flows Is A Sign Of Weakness, Nikolas Guggenberger

Seattle University Law Review

There has been a seismic shift in American attitudes toward the free flow of data across borders.  In less than a decade, the United States has transitioned from condemning barriers to digital trade to constructing a digital fortress of its own. It passed legislation requiring TikTok’s parent company to divest its U.S. operations or face a nationwide ban affecting 170 million U.S. users, citing national security concerns about its ties to China and the potential for data surveillance and content manipulation. Upon legal challenge by TikTok on First Amendment grounds, the Supreme Court affirmed the ban’s constitutionality. Recent federal legislation …

Product Nationality And Corporate Identity, Trang (Mae) Nguyen

Seattle University Law Review

Global supply chains have long depended on a deceptively technical device: the attribution of a “nationality” to goods. A trade law principle, rules of origin assign products an “economic passport” that governs how they are treated at the border, including what markets they may enter and which tariff rates apply. In recent years, however, product nationality has taken on a new and far more ambitious role. As U.S. trade policy increasingly intersects with national security and human rights policy, policymakers rely on nationality-based measures to police supply chain linkages, curb geopolitical issues, and discipline firms for their links to forced …

Global Supply Chain Resilience In Emerging Technologies: A Case Study Of Bitcoin Mining, Kishanthi Parella, Carla L. Reyes

Seattle University Law Review

The United States has put into motion bold plans in critical and emerging technologies to bolster its national and economic security.  For example, the federal government created a national bitcoin strategic reserve and a stockpile of other cryptocurrency; while several states have committed to or are considering similar goals.  However, the security of these reserves is dependent on two types of supply chains within the Bitcoin mining industry: analogue supply chains, relating to the physical components needed for Bitcoin mining, and data supply chains, relating to the complex and layered logistical network of actors that create input into the software …

Volume 49 Masthead

Seattle University Law Review

Volume 49 Masthead

A Comparative Study Of Chinese And American Approaches To Shaping International Outer Space Law And Norms, Ariel G. Silverman

Seattle University Law Review

This article explores convergences and divergencies in the United States and PRC’s responses to the stalemate in the United Nations over the future of outer space resource governance. I do so by systematically analyzing these leading space-faring nations’ policy-positions and tactics deployed to shape norms around three substantive areas of outer space resource governance: rights of ownership and scope of utilization of space resources, mechanization of the “benefits sharing” principle, and the rights and responsibilities of the private sector. I theorize that these leading space-faring nations have adopted divergent approaches due to their differing historical relationships with international law and …

Table Of Contents

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

Third-Party Funding: Balancing Transparency, National Security, And Access To Justice, Victoria Shannon Sahani

Seattle University Law Review

Many lawmakers who have recently become aware of the multi-billion-dollar global third-party funding industry are raising new national security concerns that further complicate preexisting, longstanding debates about transparency, disclosure, access to justice, and the best way to regulate third-party funding. In response, this Article briefly asserts three main points relating to the question of how best to regulate third-party funding. First, this Article explains the third-party funding industry, including its global regulatory landscape and how it serves three distinct populations: consumers, businesses, and law firms. Second, this Article explains that third-party funding is one tool that can help expand access …

The Field Of International Business Transactions Law, Kathleen Claussen

Seattle University Law Review

This Article studies the evolution of the scholarly subfield referred to as the law of “international business transactions” (IBT). It reviews data on academic articles, courses, textbooks and other signifiers of the growth of this research area. Beginning around 1960, scholars began to use the term “international business transactions” and by the 1980s, several law schools were offering a course by that title. A handful of dedicated textbooks soon followed. These data reflect a gradual increase in research on the topic of IBT, particularly in the United States, but also considerable diversity of subject matters covered by those works. The …

Kim Gyeong-Seok And The Origins Of Northeast Asia’S Corporate Accountability Movement For War And Colonialism, Timothy Webster

Seattle University Law Review

For the past three decades, a transnational reparations movement has unfolded across Northeast Asia. Hundreds of victims—assisted by attorneys, academics, and activists—seek remedies from Japan for various atrocities committed during World War II, colonialism, and other historical injustices.  They press their claims in street protests, legislative hearings, dramatic performances, and other fora.  The “comfort women” are the best known of these claimants; their global redress campaign ex-tends from noisy protests outside of Japan’s embassy in Seoul, to mute statues in raucous boroughs of Berlin.  More obscure, though larger in number, were the roughly one million Koreans who performed forced labor …

Navigating Compliance In A Geopolitical Era: The Case Of Chinese Multinationals In The United States, Ji Li

Seattle University Law Review

This Article examines how Chinese multinational companies (MNCs) approach compliance in the United States amid deepening geo-political rivalry and intensified regulatory scrutiny. Drawing on original survey data, this Article maps variations in compliance structures, staffing, and governance mechanisms across Chinese firms and identifies key determinants such as industry-specific regulatory intensity, listing status, and organizational imprinting from headquarters. The analysis employs a dual institutional framework to explain how compliance systems emerge from the interplay between host-state regulatory demands and home-state institutional legacies, producing hybrid structures that blend local adaptation with headquarters-driven replication. Findings reveal that while certain compliance features—such as committee …

Food Councils And Federal Committees: Community Responses To Inaction On Food Insecurity By Government, Kevin O'Connell, Liam R. Rupprecht

Binghamton University Undergraduate Journal

Food insecurity is a devastating force in the United States, as shown by its destructive impact on vulnerable groups like children, racial minorities, and those in poverty. Non-white urban communities of color especially have significantly higher rates of household food insecurity due to systemic racism in American food systems. Despite the prevalence of these factors, they are consistently overlooked by public and private forces. Federal efforts have failed to resolve the issue, leaving it to local “food council” organizations that attempt to help through advocacy and charity. These groups face a difficult task: how can they work to mitigate food …

Law School News: Roger Williams University Marks Fred Korematsu Day With Reflection On Rights And Responsibility 02-02-2026, Kelly Brinza, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Annual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration Lecture 01-28-2026, Roger Williams University School Of Law

School of Law Conferences, Lectures & Events

No abstract provided.

1981, Carliss N. Chatman

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

42 U.S.C. § 1981 should have solved a pervasive problem in American capitalism—when white economic interests do not converge with the contract rights of Black people, they are excluded from the market in a way that causes systemic harm. This Article proposes that the failure to enforce 1981 in the past may render it more harmful than beneficial in the present climate of retrenchment. The realities of racism combine with the lack of economic interest convergence to make combatting contract inequality on a contract-by-contract basis legally precarious, nearly impossible to properly evaluate, and difficult to economically incentivize. This is in …

B.T. And B.K.Cs. V. Hungary: Separating Roma Children From Their Mothers Before Births, Sara Apostol

Human Rights Brief

In June of 2025, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ruled in favor of a Roma mother, B.T., and her son after bringing a lawsuit against the Hungarian government for wrongfully violating their right to family life. The Hungarian government ordered the placement of B.T.’s unborn child into State care based on insufficient and dubious evidence used to justify such state action. This case focused on the prejudiced system that places Roma children into the State’s guardianship immediately after birth without evidence of imminent harm or other valid justification. Rather, it is based on the child’s ethnic and socio-economic …

Performing Democracy, Carliss N. Chatman

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

American universities are frequently portrayed as stewards of democracy—sites where dissent is protected, truth is pursued, and diversity is championed. Yet these institutions often betray these ideals, especially under the pressures of donor influence, reputational risk, and political retrenchment. This Essay interrogates the internal contradictions of the university by centering one of its most guarded rituals: faculty hiring. Building on my 2021 article The Soft Shoe and Shuffle of Law School Hiring Committee Practices, I argue that hiring serves as both a performance of inclusion and a mechanism for preserving institutional whiteness, elite networks, and gatekeeping norms. I extend …

Oregon’S History Of Using The Law To “Stack The Deck” In Favor Of White Males, Janet Steverson

Lewis & Clark Law Review

The United States has a sordid, racist history that permeates society still today. The State of Oregon has its own racist history, systematically excluding persons of Black African ancestry in its early years. This Essay explains this history and how seemingly historical practices continue to provide advantages to some, while detrimentally impacting others. This history is put in context by providing explanations of particular terms and this Essay further explains why examining these historical laws are critical in moving forward.

The Disability History Of Brown V. Board Of Education, Britney R. Wilson

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

In 1952, two years before the Supreme Court of the United States decided Brown v. Board of Education, Black deaf students in Washington, D.C., who had been prohibited from attending the local school for white deaf students and forced to go to school in Maryland, won the right to be educated in their hometowns in Miller v. Board of Education of District of Columbia. Brown is heralded as one of the most important racial justice cases of all time. It overturned Plessy v. Ferguson’s longstanding “separate but equal” mandate and ruled that the segregation of students based …

Bad Parenting On Trial: How Gender, Race, And Class Shape Parental Responsibility Prosecutions And Laws For School Shootings, Makayla R. Foust

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

In 2021, James and Jennifer Crumbley became the first parents in the United States to be found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in connection with their son’s school shooting that killed four people and injured multiple others. As school shootings continue to devastate communities across the country, prosecutors are increasingly holding parents criminally liable for their children’s actions. This development raises fundamental questions about justice, accountability, and the limits of criminal liability. While these laws aim to curb gun violence by enforcing parental accountability, they will disproportionately affect marginalized communities, particularly along gender, racial, and socioeconomic lines. As legal precedent expands, …

Making Room For Cultural Humility In An Anti-Dei Space, Shelley Ward Bennett

Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality

This Article analyzes the intersection of state anti-diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) laws and the American Bar Association (ABA) Standard 303(c)’s cross-cultural competency education mandate and offers suggestions for how these policies can coexist. The surge in anti-DEI laws issued in twenty states over the last four years has created challenges and uncertainty for public law schools and their professors seeking to include cultural competency instruction in their curriculum. Though some have expressed concerns that the requirements of state anti-DEI laws and Standard 303(c) may conflict, this Article proposes that such a conflict should not be presumed because Standard 303(c) …

Immortal Justice: Why The Henrietta Lacks Family Merits Restitution Today, Suzette Malveaux

Scholarly Articles

Almost three quarters of a century have passed since Henrietta Lacks had her cells biopsied from her cervix without her knowledge or consent. Upon discovering that Henrietta’s cells were immortal, scientists have been able to solve the most vexing medical problems of modern times and save countless lives worldwide. Aware of the cells’ scandalous origins, big pharma has nonetheless commercialized and wildly profited from the HeLa cell line without sharing the benefit with Henrietta’s family, who has been left traumatized and destitute by the initial theft.

Despite the passage of time, Henrietta’s family is seeking restitution today from pharmaceutical companies …

The Freedman's Savings Bank And Financial Literacy Education, Alexis Ann Ballance

Law Student Publications

In the United States, white, non-Hispanic individuals possess approximately seven times the wealth of Black individuals. One recent study found that for every 100 dollars in wealth held by a white household, a Black household holds about fifteen dollars. This disparity in wealth accumulation is referred to as the wealth gap, and it has historically stratified along racial lines. Although income inequality contributes to this disparity, the racial wealth gap is much more pronounced and continues to grow. ...

Systemic Racism As Negligence, Taifha Natalee Alexander

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

If negligence doctrine can hold polluters liable for foreseeable toxic harm, should it not also hold schools liable for the racial toxins their policies foreseeably cause? Negligence serves as a critical doctrinal vehicle for redressing harm resulting from failures to exercise care. Embedded in common law traditions, negligence doctrine has evolved significantly through application to new contexts where systemic, rather than individualized, failures produce harm. Some courts have applied negligence doctrine to an expanding range of institutional responsibilities, from medical malpractice to corporate liability. Yet, despite the doctrine’s flexibility, courts have not applied the framework to address one of …

Building Shields: Accreditation, Insurance, And Public-Private Partnerships As Tools To Safeguard Critical Race Theory And Democracy In Higher Education, Taifha Natalee Alexander

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

Following the racial justice uprisings of 2020, universities have become increasingly vulnerable to coordinated political campaigns aimed at dismantling antiracist teaching, training, and research. These attacks, ranging from legislative bans on Critical Race Theory (“CRT”) to executive efforts to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education, expose the fragility of higher education’s role as a guardian of democratic pluralism. This Essay demonstrates that universities cannot rely solely on moral suasion or First Amendment litigation to resist these escalating, structural assaults. Instead, colleges and universities must build a multilayered legal strategy that renders the teaching of CRT and the pursuit of …