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Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

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.

Keynote Address: The Movement To Protect Kids From Addictive Technologies, Gaia Bernstein

Seattle University Law Review

In this keynote address, I describe my personal journey starting with a school outreach program I created in 2017 to address technology overuse among kids. While I initially advocated for self-help methods, I grew to recognize that the tech industry bore responsibility. This realization led me to write Unwired: Gaining Control over Addictive Technologies, which focused on collective action to pressure the tech industry to redesign its addictive products.

I then describe the movement to control addictive technologies and protect kids, which has gained momentum since the end of the pandemic. This movement combines grassroots parent activism with legal-political action. …

Moral Panic Or Public Health Crisis? Lessons From Drugs And Gambling For “Addictive” Design, Matthew B. Lawrence, Haomin (Kevin) Yan

Seattle University Law Review

Alcohol, automobiles, guns, lottery, loot boxes, meat, music, opioid painkillers, processed foods, prop bets, slot machines, television, tobacco, violent video games. Over the last century each of these has been subject to concerns—some might even say “moral panics”—from parents and policymakers about avoidable harms to kids and adults. In some cases we look back with the benefit of hindsight and dismiss those concerns as naïve or moralistic. In others we look back at them as justified or as having come too late to check an expanding industry before it did unfathomable harm while growing so powerful that it became all …

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 …

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 …

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 …

Mistaken About Mistakes: Error Analysis As An Untapped Tool For Law School Success, Elissa Jacob

Pace Law Review

Mistakes: everyone makes them, perhaps the new law student more than most. But why do our students continue to make the same errors despite our concerted efforts to prevent them? This article explores this question and provides ideas on how to utilize mistakes to fuel the learning process. Science has proven that the human brain is hardwired to benefit from errors. However, the psychological effects of failing, cultural systems, and the American educational system are frequent barriers to this biological process.

To overcome these obstacles and most effectively employ error analysis, I propose a three-step model. First, professors must lay …

Trauma-Informed Judicial Practice Meets Therapeutic Jurisprudence: Compassionate Written Judgments In Child Protection Cases, Shelley Kierstead

Articles & Book Chapters

Trauma arises from profoundly distressing life events, and manifests in a range of often overwhelming physical and psychological symptoms. The legal community is increasingly recognizing that clients living with trauma need trauma-informed services—that is, services that “recognize, understand and minimize” the long-term impact of trauma. A trauma-informed approach acknowledges that “effective interventions with people require both the avoidance of retraumatization and the presence of respectful and supportive interventions that help people rebuild their lives.”

Neurocriminology: A Beginner’S Guide, Jerrod Brown

Forensic Scholars Today

No abstract provided.

The Female Judge “Hunch” In Family Court; Does Female Judgment Differ From Male Judgment?, Kareem M. Rashed

The Undergraduate Research Journal

This paper offers an in-depth theoretical review of the differences in moral judgments between genders, particularly emphasizing their manifestation in the context of family court. Based on Carol Gilligan's critique of Lawrence Kohlberg's theory about moral development, there are distinct differences in moral reasoning approaches between men and women. Gilligan's work challenged the universality of Kohlberg's framework and instead suggested that gendered perspectives on moral reasoning commonly prioritize care and relationships over abstract principles. Complementing this theoretical foundation, the paper incorporates findings from a number of practical studies and surveys, providing non-theoretical evidence of these differences in real-world contexts. Moreover, …

Neurotechnology Works Its Way Forward, Jeremy Ben Merkelson, Wendy Kearns, David Rice, Elyse Sparks

Seattle University Law Review Online

Neurotechnology is an emerging and rapidly advancing field of technology used to collect, process, and analyze brain or nervous system activity. The market is expected to reach $21 billion by 2026.

In a previous article, published in October 2023, we explored the potential of neurotechnology applications in the workplace, like electroencephalogram (EEG) headbands that monitor fatigue and boost safety, software and EEG combination technologies that creates a shortcut to the human brain and optimizes complex decision-making, and earbuds that track focus and stress.

We have continued to study and speak about these issues in various forums, and meanwhile, technology and …

The Effect Of Voir Dire Variations On Juror Disclosures, Joshua A. Haby

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

Voir dire, sometimes referred to as jury selection, is the legal process the court uses to pursue an impartial jury. The presiding judge controls many aspects of how voir dire proceeds. In deciding voir dire variations, the judge presumably engages in a calculus weighing factors like the goal of voir dire, time, and specific trial needs to determine appropriate procedures. Certain procedures are considered expansive and others limited. Where expansive procedures provide more information from jurors, they may take longer; limited procedures may be more expeditious but limit access to information from jurors (Hans and Jehle, 2003; Mize, Hannaford-Agor, and …

Algorithmic Speech Harm, Mateusz Grochowski

Loyola Consumer Law Review

This paper examines the potential application of product liability doctrine to content moderation and recommendation algorithms employed by social media platforms. Emerging scholarship and evolving case law suggest that product liability could provide a viable legal pathway to circumvent the limitations imposed by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. The article critically evaluates this proposition and delves into the doctrinal foundations of product liability to assess its capacity to address harms inflicted on consumers by algorithmic systems. A central focus of the analysis is the development of a more precise definition of the harm that users understood here as …

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 …

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

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 …

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 …

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 …