Human Rights Law Commons^™

The Ai Doppelgänger Dilemma: Cloned Voices In The Music Industry, Elizabeth Shields

Seattle University Law Review

With the rise of generative artificial intelligence (AI), there has been an influx of “voice clones”—deep-learning algorithms that create synthetic speech to realistically mimic human voices. Celebrities and, in particular, music artists, have been subjected to the proliferation of AI voice clones on social media platforms like TikTok and streaming platforms such as Spotify. Despite music utilizing AI voice clones having amassed much popularity, this technology can be harmful and highly invasive to musicians whose livelihoods often depend on their distinct voices. While legal scholars have attempted to articulate various rights that could protect a person’s voice, individuals are largely …

Re-Imagining Tomorrow: A Technology, Innovation Law, And Ethics Symposium On Addictive Technology And Children, Margaret Chon

Seattle University Law Review

In this Foreword, Professor Margaret Chon introduces Seattle University's Technology, Innovation Law, and Ethics (TILE) program, the 2024 TILE Symposium, and Dr. Gaia Bernstein’s Unwired: Gaining Control Over Addictive Technologies.

Let The Sunshine In: Crafting Constitutional Transparency Regulations For Content Moderation, Caitlin Ring Carlson

Seattle University Law Review

In response to public concern about the impact of social media, legislators in some U.S. states have developed laws to regulate the process of content moderation. Many include mandatory transparency and disclosure requirements, some of which courts have already deemed an unconstitutional infringement on social media platforms’ right to free expression. This article explores the parameters for crafting constitutional social media transparency regulations using existing U.S. media policy and insights from recent legal challenges. The resulting analysis identifies content neutral transparency requirements that mandate the disclosure of purely factual, non-controversial information as those most likely to withstand judicial scrutiny. Specifically, …

This Is Not A Game: The Addictive Allure Of Digital Companions, Nizan Geslevich Packin, Karni Chagal-Feferkorn

Seattle University Law Review

Artificial Intelligence (AI) agents have become an inescapable part of modern childhood, reshaping education, leisure activities, entertainment, and social interaction. From AI-powered tutors that adapt to individual learning styles to emotionally responsive chatbots that simulate human companionship, these systems promise unprecedented personalization, cognitive stimulation, and social support. However, these benefits mask significant risks that remain unregulated and inadequately addressed.

Although adults are also susceptible to forming deep emotional bonds with AI companions—often trusting them as if they possessed genuine understanding and empathy—children are particularly vulnerable. Their misplaced trust can more severely distort social development, weaken critical thinking, and foster unhealthy …

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

Responding To Digital Addiction, Ned Snow

Seattle University Law Review

In Unwired: Gaining Control over Addictive Technologies, Professor Gaia Bernstein calls our attention to the growing problem of digital addiction. Digital addiction may sound like something out of a science-fiction novel or something that does not raise the same sort of real-life practical concerns as are present in a physical health crisis or an economic decline. But as Bernstein presents the evidence, we learn that the consequences of digital addiction can be just as harmful as a serious disease or a financial depression. Cognitive development disorders, anxiety, emotional depression, social isolation, and other mental health ills can be debilitating—as much …

Mapping State Reactions To The Icc Arrest Warrants For Netanyahu And Gallant, Rebecca Ingber

Online Publications

On Thursday, the International Criminal Court (ICC) announced it had issued arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, and Yoav Gallant, the former defense minister, in connection with alleged crimes committed in the ongoing armed conflict between Israel and Hamas. In doing so, the Court rejected as premature Israel’s challenge to the Court’s jurisdiction. The Court’s decision to issue a warrant for the sitting Prime Minister of a state, which is notably not a party to the Rome Statute, also demonstrates the Court’s embrace of its prior controversial decision on immunity, namely that customary international law does …

From Deliberate Indifference To Civil Negligence: Protecting Male Prisoners From Sexual Violence In United States Prisons, Olivia Martini

Immigration and Human Rights Law Review

Sexual violence in United States prisons is a pervasive issue that disproportionately impacts male inmates, revealing systemic failures in the current legal framework designed to protect incarcerated individuals. The deliberate indifference standard, established by the United States Supreme Court, imposes an excessively high burden of proof on survivors, requiring evidence of prison officials’ subjective awareness of specific, substantial risks.

This article critiques the shortcomings of the deliberate indifference standard and proposes a civil negligence framework as a promising alternative. Grounded in an objective duty of care, a civil negligence approach emphasizes proactive measures that institutions must take to avoid liability. …

Post-Conviction Relief In Immigration Law: A Valid Solution Or Merely Perpetuating The Problem?, Will Gronefeld

Immigration and Human Rights Law Review

Immigration courts are underfunded and overwhelmed. Many noncitizens face challenges navigating the complex jurisprudence of immigration law, let alone successfully arguing their claims in court. As a result, the role of counsel takes on an even greater importance for noncitizens. However, no right to counsel exists for noncitizens. Many noncitizens who have built lives in America are deported due to difficulty navigating the complex field of immigration law on their own, not the merits of their claim. Post-conviction relief provides a legal avenue for noncitizens to challenge these decisions. This article explains the role of post-conviction relief, specifically claims of …

Respuesta A Una Crítica Política Y A Un Ataque Personal Contra Un Informe De Las Naciones Unidas Que Presenta Nueva Evidencia Sobre La Prostitución Como Causa Y Consecuencia De La Violencia Contra Las Mujeres Y Las Niñas, Reem Alsalem

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

Reem Alsalem, Relatora Especial de las Naciones Unidas sobre la violencia contra las mujeres y las niñas, sus causas y consecuencias, responde a las acusaciones falsas y infundadas y a los ataques personales sobre su informe sobre Prostitución y Violencia contra la Mujer, presentado ante la 56ª sesión del Consejo de Derechos Humanos de las Naciones Unidas en Ginebra, 2024. Presenté nueva evidencia sobre la relación entre la violencia contra las mujeres y las niñas y la prostitución. Utilizando el derecho de los derechos humanos, el informe describe la prostitución como un sistema de abuso, explotación y violencia contra las …

The Eighth Amendment’S Paper Tiger: Pain, Executions, And The Cruel And Unusual Punishment Clause, Alexandra L. Klein

Scholarly Articles

The Eighth Amendment prohibits “cruel and unusual punishments.” This prohibition applies to the way states carry out executions: states may impose capital punishment but may not do so in a way that is unconstitutionally cruel. Over a trilogy of cases that began with Baze v. Rees in 2008, the Court developed a test for analyzing whether a state’s proposed method of execution violated the Eighth Amendment. Under Baze/Glossip/Bucklew, a person challenging a state’s method of execution must show that the method of execution poses a severe risk of “superadded” pain and suffering that can be alleviated by a readily …

Legalist Realism, Mark A. Drumbl

Scholarly Articles

This essay explores the scholarly footprint of Professor Megan Fairlie. This is a footprint of "legalist realism." Professor Fairlie was greatly concerned with legalism, in other words, the centrality of due process, the rights of the defendant, and human dignity in trials of individuals accused of the most heinous crimes. She was committed to put the law in international criminal law. And her view was one of realism, notably, that the structure of international institutions must be mindful of power politics, and expectations and ambitions ought to recognize the limitations and possibilities of politics in order to retain legitimacy and …

Introduction, In Children And Violence: Agency, Experience, And Representation In And Beyond Armed Conflict (Christelle Molima Bameka Et Al. Eds., 2025), Christelle Molima Bameka, Mohamed Kamara, Mark A. Drumbl

Books and Chapters

This multi-disciplinary volume provides an innovative approach to children and violence, looking beyond the existing literature that focuses on child soldiers in the ‘Global South.’

Harnessing expert contributions from over a dozen countries, the book examines the relationship between children and violence, with a focus on children ensnared in military conflict, embroiled in criminal gangs, and enmeshed in political activism. It analyses how children join fights, how they fight, and what happens to them after fighting officially ends. It addresses cutting- edge issues such as cyberwars, self-defence, intergenerational trauma, gender fluidity, racism and state surveillance. Throughout, the book underscores the …

Children As Informers And Denouncers, In Children And Violence: Agency, Experience, And Representation In And Beyond Armed Conflict (Christelle Molima Bameka Et Al. Eds., 2025), Mark A. Drumbl, Barbora Holá

Books and Chapters

This chapter explores the use of children in propaganda and informing networks as forms of violence. While this chapter nests in 20th- century Communism in the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia, the interface of children with these networks is not unique to these times and places. Indeed, these experiences link to those elsewhere, thereby elucidating the dually manipulated and agentic role of children in a regime’s fight for legitimacy and thereby blending with a number of contributions to this volume including those by Mohamed Kamara and Sylvie Bodineau. The point of this chapter is not to particularise (or pathologise) Soviet and …

Voting Matters: Materiality Considerations And The Shareholder Vote, Renee M. Jones

Seattle University Law Review

For the shareholder franchise to have meaning, shareholders must have access to relevant information to inform their voting decisions. The securities laws’ disclosure requirements play an essential role in informing the shareholder vote.

This Essay focuses on the question of the materiality of information in the context of shareholder voting. It addresses the question of whether ESG-related information is material, positioning the materiality inquiry within the context of shareholders’ voting decisions. It explores the definition of materiality with a focus on the “reasonable investor” concept embedded within the definition. The Essay argues that the implicit expectations of many commentators that …

Through A Glass Darkly: How Securities Disclosures Give A Distorted View Of The Economy, Gerald F. Davis

Seattle University Law Review

Our understanding of the American economy often relies on stylized facts derived from mandatory disclosures by listed corporations. Data vendors like Standard & Poor’s vacuum up 10Ks and proxy statements into databases, and scholars distill these into tentative maps. This may have been adequate for a postwar economy centered on asset-heavy manufacturers, but it is increasingly out of step with an information-based economy. Companies listed on the stock market are fewer in number and less representative than they were, light in tangible assets and people, and heavy on IP. Basic facts such as what industry they are in are increasingly …

Shareholder Expression In A Time Of Heightened Political Tension, Aaron A. Dhir

Seattle University Law Review

In this article, I provide context for my forthcoming research project on shareholder proposals and racial equity audits. Since the murder of George Floyd in May of 2020, progressive shareholder actors have increasingly used the proposal mechanism to advance diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice-related goals. These proposals have frequently gone beyond requesting the usual corporate fare of diversity trainings, intersectionality workshops, affinity groups, etc. Instead, a more ambitious type of proposal asks corporate America to conduct racial equity audits, defined as “an independent, objective and holistic analysis of a company’s policies, practices, products, services and efforts to combat systemic racism …

Eye-For-An-Eye: High Compensation Awards Against States As Undue Punishment, David M. Bigge, Jonathan M. White

American University International Law Review

In observing the past several years’ debates regarding reparations under international law, we are reminded of lessons we learned as children in Sunday School. The Jewish and Christian sacred texts address the principle of retributive justice reflected in the Biblical phrase “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.” During the early rabbinic period, the great sages grappled with the import of this rule. Jesus famously rejected the rule in favor of mercy: “turn the other cheek.” The rabbis were not as interested in rejecting this rule in its entirety as ensuring that it yielded justice.

Crippled By War: Arguing Russia’S Actions In Ukraine Constitute Disability Persecution Under Article 7(1)(H) Of The Rome Statute, Davis Hayman

American University International Law Review

During the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine, Russia implemented a “humanitarian aid” program which moved Ukrainian people with disabilities to Russia or Russian-controlled areas. The Prosecutor for the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants under the theory that this program constitutes war crimes.

This Comment argues this program further qualifies as the crime of persecution against Ukrainians with disabilities. This piece first analyzes the crime of persecution, its relationship with other crimes and how non-enumerated groups can receive its protection. Next, this piece analyzes international human rights developments related to people with disabilities to show they qualify for such …

Beyond Policy: Overcoming Challenges In Prosecuting Gender Persecution At The International Criminal Court, Yvonne M. Dutton, Milena Sterio

FIU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Provisional Release At International Criminal Courts And Tribunals – Lessons Learned?, Ava Schuster, Göran Sluiter

FIU Law Review

This article builds on Professor Meghan Fairlie’s earlier critique of pre-trial detention practices at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY). Fairlie identified significant shortcomings in safeguarding the right to liberty and the presumption of innocence of detainees, arguing that the Tribunal’s approach was inconsistent with international human rights law (IHRL). Fifteen years later, how has the International Criminal Court (ICC) addressed these concerns? While the Rome Statute introduces notable improvements, including an explicit commitment to IHRL, the Court’s practice still heavily favors detention over liberty. A key issue remains the ICC’s reliance on State cooperation for provisional …

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

Corporate Governance Speech, Sarah C. Haan

Seattle University Law Review

The State has always regulated the intra-firm communications that make corporate governance possible, most commonly by mandating disclosures of information by a corporation to its shareholders. Some such laws are labeled “securities regulation,” but securities regulation is a broad category that extends to speech by actors who are outside the corporate enterprise as well. Also, the conventional securities regulation category does not capture all such laws; other examples, including informationforcing mandates, can be found in state corporate law. This Article uses the term “corporate governance speech” to describe the communications among shareholders, directors, and officers through which corporate governance is …

Green Dividends: A Case Study In Green Dividends And The Conditions For Private Ordering Solutions, Anne M. Tucker

Seattle University Law Review

This Essay introduces a novel private ordering solution to facilitate corporate investments in pro-social and environmental initiatives: Green dividends. Green dividends are an optional increase in shareholder dividends that are returned to the company to be reinvested in environmental initiatives or kept by a shareholder.

Green dividends pose an alternative to the current gridlocked debate that corporations can’t, won’t, shouldn’t, and shouldn’t even try to act in pro-social or environmental ways. Turning the common refrains on their head converts each narrative into an element for a successful private ordering solution: authority, accountability, shareholder buy-in, and government- backed enforcement. With Green …

Does Climate Disclosure Work To Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions? Emerging Evidence Suggests Cautious Optimism, Cynthia A. Williams

Seattle University Law Review

Significant regulatory resources have been spent developing global, voluntary climate and sustainability disclosure standards, such as the TCFD, TNRD, and ISSB’s Sustainability and Climate Disclosure standards, or domestically required disclosures, such as in the EU and in the U.S. Thus, it is important to evaluate whether this disclosure, particularly voluntary, qualitative disclosure, will have the power to shift the allocation of capital, will have a significant effect on the management of climate risk within firms, and ultimately will reduce climate change risk and biodiversity loss.

In this Article, several interrelated questions will be discussed. First, what does the empirical evidence …

Volume 48 Masthead, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Volume 48 Masthead

The Grass Is Not Always Greener: How The Legalization Of Recreational Cannabis Across The United States Is At Odds With Incarceration And Continued Punishment, Marc Sendra

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

Whether you call it Mary Jane, skunky funky, green, ganja, reefer, or just plain-old cannabis, this special green plant doused in purple and orange accents has become a popular topic of discussion within the legal community and American culture. Cannabis has been held in “high” regard for its scientific advances in the medical industry, alongside its recreational usage, enjoyed by laughs and giggles, munchies, and plenty of water, leading to a wave of medical and recreational legalization.

Incentives for legalization come at the onset of promising medical research, economic growth motives, and social justice, reflecting upon a comprehensive approach that …

Countries As Laboratories: Reflections On Sierra Leone’S Amended Anti-Human Trafficking Law, Andrea L. Dennis

Scholarly Works

Sierra Leone’s improved anti-trafficking laws align with global norms, but enforcement remains weak due to socio-economic realities and Western deterrence mismatches, limiting effective prosecution despite recent legislative reforms.

Volume 48 Masthead, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Volume 48 Masthead

Corporate Scenarios: Drawing Lessons From History, Madison Condon

Seattle University Law Review

As corporations are increasingly pressed to reveal information about their exposure to climate-related risks, they are often asked to undertake and disclose the outcome of “scenario analysis.” In this exercise, corporations, including financial institutions, examine how their business would fare under different pathways the future may take. One oft-used scenario, for example, is the International Energy Agency’s “Net-Zero by 2050: A Roadmap for the Energy Sector.” This Essay presents a history of the use of scenarios as a corporate planning tool, particularly in the oil industry, arguing that it is key for understanding our present moment and the role of …