Jurisdiction Commons^™

Standing In The Shadows: Member Anonymity In Associational Standing Cases, Mitchell Brost

Pepperdine Law Review

Associational standing serves several benefits for plaintiff members: associations often have expertise in a certain field that guides the representation of their members, they have greater resources that allow them to bring lawsuits in the first place, and they can serve as the public face of the lawsuit to shield the plaintiff member from serious retaliation that may result from bringing the claim. But due to some imprecise language in Justice Scalia’s majority opinion in Summers v. Earth Island Institute, circuit courts are divided over whether associational members can remain anonymous at all. Thus, individuals who have legitimate legal claims, …

Jealously Guarded: The Right To Trial By Jury In Federal Court Under California’S Unruh Civil Rights Act, Denis Bogatin

Pepperdine Law Review

Since California adopted heightened pleading standards for high-frequency litigants alleging violations of the Unruh Act in state court, federal district courts have seen a surge of ADA and Unruh Act claims filed together to secure subject matter jurisdiction. Most courts dismissed the Unruh claims under their discretionary authority under 28 U.S.C. § 1367, but they remained divided on whether plaintiffs in these cases have a right to jury trial—statutory or constitutional. In 2025, the Ninth Circuit resolved part of the split in In re Tsay, holding that the Unruh Act provides a constitutional right to a jury trial because it …

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 …

Two Decades Since Cms V. Argentina: Concession Contracts, Necessity Doctrine, And The Imf’S Impact On Sovereign Economic Governance, Esraa S. Saied Abdallah

Theses and Dissertations

In the evolving landscape of international trade, particularly within the framework of Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs), the primary aim has been to promote and protect foreign investment. The 1980s witnessed a notable increase in investment treaties, coinciding with a global shift toward privatization that was significantly influenced by the impact of international financial institutions, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. By the 1990s, BITs had evolved to offer specific guarantees aimed at reducing the risks foreign investors faced in host states. However, despite the growth and transformation brought about by foreign investments, disputes arising under investment …

The Business Bankruptcy “Big 3” And The Unanticipated Benefits Of Subchapter V, Marshall V. Ringwood

BYU Law Review

The liberal bankruptcy venue rules in the United States have their defenders and advocates. Subchapter V of the Bankruptcy Code came into effect in 2020, justified as a bipartisan solution to a longstanding problem in corporate bankruptcy where restructuring under Chapter 11 was prohibitively expensive for small-business debtors. On June 21, 2024, Subchapter V’s extended debt limit of $7,500,000 in liabilities reverted back to a statutorily defined $3,024,725. In addition to the justifications offered by organizations such as the American Bankruptcy Institute (ABI) for both Subchapter V, generally, and a permanent increase to its debt limit, I argue that Subchapter …

Winnowing The Wheat From The Chaff: The Continuing Controversy Over Article Iii Standing And The Certification Of Rule 23(B)(3) Damages Classes Containing "Uninjured" Members, William G. Beatty

William & Mary Business Law Review

The controversy surrounding the inclusion of uninjured class members in Rule 23(b)(3) damages classes has deeply divided the federal circuit courts of appeals and continues to do so. This Article explores the constitutional roots of the issue, beginning with the foundational element of Article III standing, and discusses the question of how many uninjured members, if any, Rule 23 permits in a class seeking certification before problems with commonality and predominance arise.

The Article discusses the details of the Laboratory Corp. of America v. Davis case (LabCorp), which, in the spring of 2025, presented the Supreme Court with …

The Federalism Canons As Ordinary Interpretation, Anthony J. Bellia Jr., Bradford R. Clark

Northwestern University Law Review

Scholars remain generally skeptical of substantive canons of statutory interpretation even as courts continue to employ such canons in important cases. Unlike semantic canons, which help judges discern the best meaning of statutory text in context, substantive canons provide tiebreakers when the text is unclear or require special clarity in order for the text to perform certain functions. Among the substantive canons, the so-called “federalism canons” have been singled out for special scrutiny. The federalism canons are a family of canons that require courts to avoid interpreting an act of Congress to divest states of certain sovereign rights or powers—including …

The Role Of The U.S. State Department As An Amicus In Foreign Policy Abstention Analysis, Sarah Kurpius

Northwestern University Law Review

Foreign policy abstention is a novel and unsettled doctrine in international litigation. Unlike other established international litigation abstention doctrines, foreign policy abstention permits courts to decline jurisdiction when adjudication implicates significant foreign policy concerns. First invoked in 2004, the doctrine has since appeared sporadically in case law, most recently in the Eighth Circuit’s decision in Reid v. Doe Run Resources. Yet, its analytical framework remains muddy and amorphous, leading to inconsistent judicial application.

This Note examines one critical factor courts consider when determining whether to apply the foreign policy abstention: the strength of U.S. foreign policy interests in the …

Applying The Indian Commerce Clause To Indian Commerce, Adam Crepelle

Northwestern University Law Review

Indian country commerce generates tens of billions of dollars annually and is a constant source of litigation. These disputes typically revolve around jurisdictional conflicts: whether states, tribes, or both possess regulatory authority over the business operating in Indian country, particularly those involving non-Indians. Despite numerous court cases, no clear legal framework has emerged, creating pervasive uncertainty regarding fundamental issues, such as state taxation of tribal transactions and the proper forum for resolving Indian country contract disputes. Interestingly, these commercial cases overlook the Indian Commerce Clause—the constitutional provision designed to address such matters.

This Article argues the Indian Commerce Clause prohibits …

From Pirates To Corporations: The Evolving Battleground Of The Alien Tort Statute, Marin Larkin

Notre Dame Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

From Dred Scott To Barbara: Birthright Citizenship, Racial Exclusion, And The Enduring Promise Of The Fourteenth Amendment, Jenna A. Milbrodt

CMC Senior Theses

The Fourteenth Amendment’s Citizenship Clause has guaranteed birthright citizenship to all children born in the United States for hundreds of years. Yet, President Trump’s January 20, 2025, executive order threatens to strip that right from children born to parents unlawfully in the country and temporary visitors. This order, if permitted to stand, would change the definition of US citizenship and render countless children stateless persons without citizenship rights. This paper examines whether birthright citizenship in the US, properly understood, extends to children of unlawful immigrants and temporary visitors. To answer this question, three time periods of change in citizenship rights …

Beyond Borders: Transnational Repression As A System Of Authoritarian Control In Russia, Kazakhstan, And Kyrgyzstan, Jasmine D. Cameron

Human Rights Brief

This Article examines transnational repression, state-sponsored persecution of citizens, human rights defenders, journalists, members of diaspora, and critical voices located outside physical borders, as a systemic tool of political control employed by Russia, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. Based on analysis of legislation, published reports, UN Special Rapporteur findings, and case files, this Article provides three case studies that demonstrate different stages of an escalating trend towards transnational repression systems. From Kyrgyzstan, where the government has started to develop and implement harmful practices to persecute its citizens abroad, to a more established system in Kazakhstan, where numerous incidents of transnational repression showed …

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. …

Citators In The Ai Age: Preserving The Human Component Through Court-Created Citators, Cody B. James

Faculty Law Review Articles

Citators have long worked behind the scenes, shaping case law and influencing how judges and lawyers view precedent. Yet their creation has been the sole realm of private publishers. As artificial intelligence (AI) is further integrated into citators’ creation, the human role is at risk of being automated. This article examines citators’ influence over substantive law, the human-in-the-loop justifications for preserving human involvement in citators’ creation, and the argument for courts to produce their own citators. By reclaiming this function, the courts can help enhance their legitimacy and preserve the human role in creating structures of legal information in the …

How To Apply Hertz Corp. V. Friend In The Age Of Remote Work, John Andrikos

Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology

The widespread adoption of remote work in the United States has strained the workability of the nerve center test of Hertz Corp. v. Friend. This comment analyzes how federal courts have applied the nerve center test to fact patterns involving partially or fully remote corporations. Further, it proposes a novel solution to this jurisdictional problem: the Key Person Test.

New England Prop. Servs. Grp., Llc V. Vt. Mut. Ins. Co., 331 A.3d 730 (R.I. 2025)., Kayla Badstubner

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Dokdo/Takeshima And Maritime Delimitation Between The Republic Of Korea And Japan: A Comment On Icj Dispute Resolution, Katherine Angell

Celebrating WCL Student Authors

The Republic of Korea (Korea) should agree to submit the issue of sovereignty over Dokdo/Takeshima and the issue of maritime delimitation in the East Sea/Sea of Japan to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) because the ICJ is likely to decide that Dokdo/Takeshima is Korean territory and the tensions in the East Sea/Sea of Japan can be resolved to allow further cooperation between the two nations. The ICJ is the primary avenue for peacefully resolving territorial and maritime delimitation disputes between nations, and the ICJ has developed a substantial body of case law analyzing these issues. The ICJ considers various …

A Direct Path Should Be Easy To Follow: Reframing The “Direct Effect” Test For Jurisdictional Immunity Under The Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, Greggory Cashmark

Vanderbilt Law Review

As sovereign nations become more involved in international commercial dealings, it becomes more important to establish a reliable and stable framework for resolving disputes with foreign sovereigns. The FSIA is the result of a long historical trend towards establishing that framework. While the FSIA is a step in the right direction, there are a number of interpretive questions regarding where it places the boundaries of a court's jurisdiction over foreign sovereign activity. While these questions remain open and while courts continue to find reasons to keep them open, they undermine the principal purpose of the FSIA: predictability. There is no …

Law Library Blog (January 2026): Legal Beagle's Blog Archive, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Law Library Newsletters/Blog

No abstract provided.