Law and Society Commons^™

Outlier On Lgbtq Rights: Japanese Ban On Same-Sex Marriage And Its Contradiction In The Age Of Globalization, Yumi Higashi

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

Japan is the only Group of Seven country yet to recognize same-sex marriage. Despite strong public support for marriage equality, the conservative dominance of the Japanese legislature and the Japanese courts’ deferential approach have stalled the change. This Note will analyze the legal issues and implications of Japan’s failure to recognize same-sex marriage and Japan’s worldwide inheritance tax regime, with an emphasis on cross-border succession and estate planning. Specifically, the Note argues that the United States, as the only country with which Japan has a treaty in estate, inheritance, and gift tax, should renegotiate the treaty as it could have …

Silent Suffering: Demanding Individual Accountability For Sexual Assault Against Disabled Children In School Environments, Stephanie Flores

Journal of Law and Policy

Disabled children are among the most vulnerable in society, particularly in school environments where they depend on the actions and care of others for their safety. These children face significantly higher risks of sexual abuse than their non-disabled peers, and school officials' negligence can exacerbate this danger. Despite the prevalence of such cases, the Fifth Circuit's refusal to recognize school officials’ liability under the state-created danger doctrine, as seen in Fisher v. Moore, deprives disabled children of adequate legal recourse under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The decision holds that school officials cannot be held personally liable for the peer-inflicted sexual …

Growing Rich Off The Fruits Of Private Incarceration, Joseph Hennessy

Journal of Law and Policy

Mass incarceration is a uniquely American phenomenon. With roots in chattel slavery, modern mass incarceration truly exploded in the latter half of the 20th Century. As Reagan-era politicians advocated for fiscal conservatism on the one hand and heavy-handed responses to crime on the other, private prison pioneers saw an opportunity to derive profit from society’s most vulnerable. Today, private prisons house as much as half of some states’ total prison population, and private prison corporations have demonstrated an insatiable desire to expand their reach. This Note explores the unique social vulnerability of privately incarcerated people through a statutory and judicial …

Balancing Freedom Of Expression And Equality On College Campuses In The Wake Of Intensified Antisemitism, Andrea Jane Martin

Brooklyn Law Review

The long-standing debate about free speech on college campuses was reignited by the attack on Israel by Hamas on October 7, 2023. Since then, anti-Israel advocacy at universities has drastically escalated. During demonstrations, protests, and rallies, students shout vile antisemitic slogans, call for the death of Jews and the destruction of Israel, promote violence against Jews, and harass and threaten fellow students because they are Jewish. Some university administrators have been publicly accused of floundering in their responses to intensifying antisemitic campus environments and failing to protect Jewish students from harassment. In defense of their inaction, a frequent retort is …

Law School News: Disrupting Legal Education For Equity 11-19-2024, Danna Lorch

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Integrating Doctrine And Diversity Speaker Series: Echoes Of Slavery: A Deep Dive Into The Citing Slavery Project 11-6-2024, Roger Williams University School Of Law

School of Law Conferences, Lectures & Events

No abstract provided.

Accommodating Incompetency In Immigration Court, Elizabeth Jordan

Northwestern University Law Review

In criminal law, an individual must be deemed competent to stand trial, yet our immigration courts routinely order the deportation of incompetent noncitizens. A removal proceeding against a noncitizen—where an outcome of deportation often risks life-threatening harm—continues apace even if the noncitizen has been deemed incompetent by the immigration judge. In place of halting proceedings, the immigration judge imposes “safeguards” pursuant to a provision of the immigration code that neither defines nor explains the term. In practice, judges’ application of the term “safeguards” is often absurd. The implications of continuing a proceeding against a noncitizen with a disability affecting competency …

"Legally Magic" Words: An Empirical Study Of The Accessibility Of Fifth Amendment Rights, Roseanna Sommers, Kate Weisburd

Northwestern University Law Review

Fifth Amendment case law (including Miranda v. Arizona) requires that individuals assert their right to counsel or silence using “explicit,” “clear,” and “unambiguous” statements—or, as some dissenting judges have lamented, using “legally magic” words. Through a survey of 1,718 members of the U.S. public, we investigate what ordinary people believe it takes to assert the right to counsel and the right to silence. We then compare their perceptions against prevailing legal standards governing invocation.

With respect to the right to counsel, the survey results indicate that members of the public have a uniformly lower threshold for invocation than do …

Rising Temperatures, The Prison Litigation Reform Act, And The Heat Death Of Human Dignity In Texas Prisons, Brianne Wylie

Northwestern University Law Review

This Note seeks to shed light on the life-threatening danger of extreme heat in un-air-conditioned Texas prisons. The Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA) starkly limits the relief available to those suffering and dying in these prisons. This Note proposes an amendment to the legislation that could create a path toward lasting relief for incarcerated people. After analyzing the effects of increasing heat on the particularly vulnerable prison population, this Note analyzes how the Supreme Court and the Fifth Circuit have handled claims alleging constitutionally violative prison conditions under the Eighth Amendment—in short, ineffectively, if at all. This Note then details …

Thurgood Marshall Memorial Lecture: 80 Years After Korematsu V. U.S.: It's All About Us 10-29-2024, Roger Williams University School Of Law

School of Law Conferences, Lectures & Events

No abstract provided.

Reverse Discrimination: An Opportunity To Modernize And Improve Employment Discrimination Law, William R. Corbett

University of Miami Law Review

The issue of how to prove discrimination in reverse discrimination cases has produced a division in the circuits and some strongly worded opinions about discriminatory discrimination law. The courts begin with the three-stage proof framework developed by the Supreme Court in 1973 in McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U.S. 792. Some courts adjust the prima facie case, the first stage of the analysis, by requiring a reverse discrimination plaintiff to prove background circumstances that justify the inference that the defendant discriminates in a way that is not consistent with historical patterns of discrimination. Other courts reject the background …

Revisiting Marcuse On Repressive Tolerance: A Twenty-First Century Retrospective, David Ingram

Philosophy: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Herbert Marcuse’s essay Repressive Tolerance (RP) has been praised by the Left and vilified by the Right for its alleged promotion of censorship targeting reactionary opinions and actions. I argue that this interpretation of the text is mistaken. According to my alternative reading of the text, RP should be understood as an exercise in provocation and irony aimed at defending civil disobedience and dissent. Marcuse’s defense of dissent, however, appeals to a critique of pure tolerance that exposes the unavoidably partisan practice of tolerance, which invariably favors the reigning undemocratic status quo. The choice whether to tolerate in a manner …

Integrating Doctrine & Diversity Speaker Series: Owning Our Values: Supplementing Our Textbooks For Those Engaged In Social Justice, Roger Williams University School Of Law

School of Law Conferences, Lectures & Events

No abstract provided.

Changemaker: Samuel Filiaggi: Juris Doctorate: The Powerful Combination Of Representation And Advocacy 10-7-2024, Danna Lorch, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

A Feedback Loop Of Exclusion: The Treatment Of Bilingualism In The Courtroom, Simone Stover

Northwestern University Law Review

In the 1991 case Hernandez v. New York, the United States Supreme Court characterized bilingualism as a race-neutral trait that can be used to exclude individuals from jury service. This Note proceeds by demonstrating how the current state of the law undermines the interests of bilingual individuals and then proposes a solution. Focusing specifically on Hispanic bilingual Spanish speakers, this Note first employs Professor Jennifer Lackey’s multi-directional credibility model to show that bilingual Spanish speakers suffer injustice in the courtroom due to both credibility deficits and excesses. Following this analysis, it proposes a possible solution to this issue: an …

Table Of Contents - Cardozo Journal Of Equal Rights & Social Justice, Vol. 31, Iss. 1

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Masthead, Cardozo Journal Of Equal Rights & Social Justice, Vol. 31 (2024–25)

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Standing For Change: Associational Standing As An Aggregational Mechanism In Tenants' Rights, Hope Peraria

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The note argues that tenant associations can serve as an effective vehicle for aggregate lawsuits to vindicate tenants' rights, addressing the persistent enforcement gap in housing rights. By leveraging associational standing, these associations can advocate for shared interests, facilitate community organizing, and complement legal reforms. This approach not only strengthens tenants' collective power but also offers practical solutions to systemic barriers that prevent individuals from asserting their rights.

Law School News: Transforming Adversity Into Advocacy 9-4-2024, Andrew Clark, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Measures Of Justice: Researching And Evaluating Lay Legal Assistance Programs, Tanina Rostain, James Teufel

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

In recent years a national movement to train lay advocates and advisors to assist people with their common justice problems has emerged in the United States. A host of new programs have launched that allow trained navigators and justice workers to provide legal assistance. These programs – developed in Alaska, Delaware, South Carolina, Arizona, and Utah, among other places – vary in their substantive focus, the skills they impart, and their approaches to reaching the people and communities they seek to help. The proliferation of lay legal assistance programs creates research imperatives and opportunities. These programs need to be assessed …

University Of The District Of Columbia Law Review, University Of The District Of Columbia Law Review

University of the District of Columbia Law Review

No abstract provided.

How Should We Measure Effectiveness Of Medical-Legal Partnerships?, Prashasti Bhatnagar, Deborah F. Perry, Margaret E. Greer

HJA Scholarship

Medical-legal partnerships (MLPs) try to mitigate health inequity by uniting legal and health professionals to respond to legal determinants of patients’ health. While there is a long tradition of “patients-to-policy” work in MLPs, the current empirical evidence base has evaluated MLP effectiveness by assessing benefits to individual patients, clinicians, and hospital and legal systems. This article calls for future research to measure how community power, which includes shifting power to impacted communities to develop and lead equity-focused agendas, is built as both a process and an outcome of MLPs.

Is Grammar Religious Exercise? Addressing Transgender Students And The Limits Of The Complicity Doctrine, Saul R. Thorkelson

Cardozo Law Review

May teachers reject transgender students’ names and pronouns on religious grounds? Across the United States, many schools and universities have adopted policies calling on staff to use all students’ designated first names and gender-congruent pronouns. A number of conservative Christian teachers have claimed that they cannot address transgender students in this way without violating their religious beliefs. In several cases, after unsuccessful attempts by administrators to accommodate these objections, teachers who were subject to employment consequences have brought lawsuits alleging violation of their religious liberty and free speech rights.

This Note employs two recent cases to examine courts’ reasoning on …

Can Human Rights Be Reconciled With Citizenship: Reconsidering Marx's Zur Judenfrage Today, David Ingram

Philosophy: Faculty Publications and Other Works

This essay critically re-examines Marx’s youthful analysis of the separation of church and state and his complex views about the function of rights in the modern state. I argue that Marx’s condemnation of Christian nationalism and endorsement of citizenship for Jews is consistent with his view that the modern, secular state cannot emancipate itself entirely from religiosity, as evidenced by the continuing legacy of nationalism and cultural identity politics today. Although Marx correctly follows Hegel in identifying modernity with a structural differentiation between civil society and state, I argue that he misunderstands the nature of this separation and, along with …

Law School News: Mandell-Boisclair Justice Camp Prepares Young Scholars To Become Future Lawyers, Social Justice Advocates 7-26-2024, Jordan J. Phelan, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Changemakers: Juris Doctorate: Peter Sabian L'17: Practice With A Purpose 7-15-24, Jane Lee, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Dobbs And Sterilization Decision-Making: Understanding The Coercive Spillover Effects In Reproductive Choice, Thomas Williams

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

The Supreme Court majority in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization argued their decision would have limited impact beyond abortion rights. This Article examines how Dobbs and subsequent state abortion restrictions are likely to increase women’s reliance on permanent sterilization procedures, particularly among already marginalized populations. Drawing on emerging data and historical context, I argue that some post-Dobbs sterilizations should be understood as effectively coerced by state policies, implicating reproductive justice concerns and potentially undermining fundamental rights established in Skinner v. Oklahoma. Then, I demonstrate how interdisciplinary bioethics frameworks and methodologies can help courts better understand the full implications of …

Annual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration Lecture 1-26-24, Roger Williams University School Of Law

School of Law Conferences, Lectures & Events

No abstract provided.

Radical Visions For The Law Of Peace: How W.E.B. Du Bois And The Black Antiwar Movement Reimagined Civil Rights And The Laws Of War And Peace, Andrew J. Lanham

Washington Law Review

This Article reconstructs the history of Black antiwar activism in the twentieth-century United States and argues that Black antiwar activists played a significant but largely forgotten role in the development of both modern civil rights law and the international law of war and peace. The Article focuses on the career of W.E.B. Du Bois, tracing how he built coalitions between civil rights and antiwar organizations to pursue a series of shared legal campaigns. Du Bois’s antiwar work was also representative of a larger tradition, and his career illuminates how a range of Black activists and civil rights lawyers like Pauli …

Critical Race Theory Bans And The Changing Canon: Cultural Appropriation In Narrative, Susan Ayres

Faculty Scholarship

Thirty-five states have enacted critical race theory bans at the level of elementary and secondary public education, and seven states have extended these to the university level. One way to resist these attempts to repress a healthy democracy by whitewashing history is through a pedagogy of antiracism, including literary works. The question of what that would look like involves questions of cultural appropriation, which occurs when one takes from another culture, such as a writer creating a narrative about a character outside of the writer’s cultural identity. This Article considers the story of Ota Benga, brought from the Congo to …